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Michael Singer

Developers Develop Cloud-straphobia

Written by Michael Singer
8/14/2009 2 comments
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If you believe the hype, cloud computing is currently the hottest thing in Internet technology. So why are software developers and engineers running scared in the opposite direction?

I swear CEOs and CIOs can't go five feet before bumping into someone asking them to buy into the notion of distributed/virtualized/timeshared computing networks -- a.k.a. "the cloud."

You'd think it was the answer to all of life's problems. Startup? Join the cloud. Need to scale? Join the cloud. Pimples? Can't help you there, but join the cloud anyway.

Whereas Web services and services-oriented architecture (SOA) were marketing darlings five years ago, these days lots of hype and confusion permeate the market with talk of cloud computing. IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), and a host of others are staking their fame and fortune around it.

So, lots of talk should mean lots of development of cloud computing applications, right? Not so fast there, Baby-Faced Finster.

A report released by Evans Data this month revealed nearly half (48.9 percent) of those queried expect to deploy apps in a private cloud. The survey of 500 software developers also showed that 29.7 percent are currently working on applications destined for a private cloud environment, while an additional 19.2 percent expect to enter development within the next 12 months.

"You always look at the adoption rates as compared to the market hype, and adoption rates are less than people think right now," Evans Data CEO John Andrews told me.

The gist of the report's findings illustrate an old adage about software engineers and developers: They stay with what they know, and they move slowly to avoid being replaced.

In addition to adoption rates, developers were also generous in revealing that 48 percent think that Java is the best language for developing in the cloud, followed by C#. No surprise there, as Amazon and IBM are huge proponents.

Three quarters of developers think that data for applications deployed in the cloud should be backed up outside the public cloud -- either in traditional on-site storage or in a private cloud.

Interestingly, half of the developers using Amazon public cloud services are using them experimentally or for prototyping rather than for business critical apps. Does this mean Amazon is toxic? More likely, they don't trust Amazon with critical data.

While Evans Data has been accused in the past of pessimistic reports, I see this one as pretty much on the mark.

IDG's recent conference on next-generation data centers and cloud computing revealed CEOs and CIOs agree that cloud development is good for testing, but not necessarily for critical systems.

Zmanda CEO Chander Kant's company launched a new storage API for backup to the cloud. His take? Use the cloud to rollout and test programs for scale and reducing bottlenecks, but make critical systems real servers that are housed in your own sites.

Similarly, RightScale CEO Michael Crandell told me that his company's recent partnerships with Jaspersoft, Talend, and Vertica are indications that cloud software is getting advanced enough now that business users would be able to run business intelligence reports over a cloud infrastructure in a few minutes.

Neither seemed overly concerned that software developers were adverse to building cloud-computing tools.

That alone should send chills down the spine of any software engineer or developer not eager to adopt cloud platforms. But it should inspire any executive that is serious about cloud computing. Perhaps now's the time to light a fire under your developers.

— Michael Singer, Senior Editor, Internet Evolution. His focus includes executive issues... What's top of mind for CEOs, CIOs, and CTOs?
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Mary Jander
Thinkernetter
Friday August 14, 2009 10:39:45 AM
no ratings

"....cloud software is getting advanced enough now that business users would be able to run business intelligence reports over a cloud infrastructure in a few minutes."

Run that by me again: Are the vendors saying you could implement a business intelligence system within a few minutes?

This is precisely the kind of statement that's giving cloud services the rap as slideware.

donaldleegraham
IQ Crew
Friday August 14, 2009 10:24:37 AM
no ratings

"...developers using Amazon public cloud services are using them experimentally or for prototyping rather than for business critical apps."

Bingo... you are 100% on the money! As a developer/founder of an educational startup, cloud services such as Amazon Web Services are very valuable to me.

"Does this mean Amazon is toxic? More likely, they don't trust Amazon with critical data."

The value to me is the high availability, ability to scale, but most importantly the pricing model... pay-for-what-you-use. I will always have a backup server as well as a local backup. Its not that I don't trust Amazon, it simply a good practice to have a backup and a backup of the backup.

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