-
Cloud Computing and IT Outsourcing
Many data center operators offer cloud computing products and services. We are all reading how cloud computing is the next big thing. But it’s sometimes difficult to understand the benefits of this new technology service. This white paper from Hosting.com provides insight into what cloud computing can mean for your company in terms of efficiency, flexibility, and cost savings.
Because cloud computing is at the early stages of what Gartner calls the “hype cycle,” there is widespread confusion about what the term actually means, as well as questions about how this new technology can deliver practical business benefits. Gartner is also predicting that by 2012 many large organizations will not own their IT equipment. Therefore, it is important to understand how cloud computing will fit into your IT outsourcing strategy.
There are a lot of cloud computing definitions. It’s perhaps more helpful to look at Cloud computing as a new approach to IT infrastructure, and an option that can provide more efficient use of computing resources. Cloud computing offers real value right now, and this white paper explains how it works in the context of IT outsourcing. Click here to download this white paper.
To find other data center white paper visit the Data Center Knowledge White Paper Library.
buncha fools I tell ya! For dedicated 24/7 infrastructure there isn’t a cloud provider on the planet that has reasonable prices. All of the analysis I have seen at two different companies now puts the payback of hosting internally at anywhere from 3 to 9 months. In one case pay back was immediate because the “cloud” install fee for a moderate amount of infrastructure was 4.4 times the purchase cost of the equipment, if you throw in hosting and administrative fees(IT guys etc I’m being very very generous), just MOVING INTO the cloud was 3.4 times the cost of hosting it internally with dedicated IT staff for one full year, that’s not taking into account the recurring fees on the cloud side. And while the cloud can offer better agility in some areas it restricts agility in so many other areas.
Now if your stuff is very bursty, and you have the ability to manage such a dynamic infrastructure where things are coming up and down all the time (not an easy feat), then the cloud might make sense depending on how much your bursting. Chuck from EMC had a great example of this going behind the scenes of Pfizer’s use of the Amazon cloud:
http://chucksblog.emc.com/chucks_blog/2010/08/the-real-story-at-pfizer.html
I talked to one cloud company last year about getting some dedicated tier 1 storage, their cost per year was more than double my cost to buy the same storage — the same storage from the same vendor the cloud company uses. And I’ll tell you we don’t have the economies of scale that the larger cloud company does. Not even close.
If the big companies do outsource to the cloud, it won’t take long to realize it was a mistake but it will probably take a long time to reverse the trend and recoup the lost investment.
The places where it can make sense though is organizations where the level of incompetence is so high that paying the cloud does actually save. This site had a good example a few months back about the government wanting to spend several million $ to start a blog that is a good example. I suppose it may be more common than one would expect.
And to clarify, the monthly costs of the cloud in the above examples could easily pay the YEARLY salary of a very senior systems person for each and every month you are in the cloud. The same applies to at least 4 different cloud companies I have looked at including Amazon.
Breaking Innovation Gridlock through Cloud-Powered Outsourcing « Telco Cloud Services
Posted September 18th, 2010[...] Cloud Computing and IT Outsourcing (datacenterknowledge.com) [...]
Inter-Cloud Services « Telco Cloud Services
Posted September 18th, 2010[...] Cloud Computing and IT Outsourcing (datacenterknowledge.com) [...]
Cloud computing is evolving fast. Today, organisations understand that they can use the model to cut costs, increase efficiency and be more responsive to changing market demands. They also know that the Cloud, with a range of ‘public’ and ‘private’ solutions available, can offer the security and information assurance to meet a range of needs.
I’m really excited about cloud computing and what it can offer in the future. It may be costly initially but could more or less become the mainstream IT solution for many companies.
Cloud Growth Spurs Demand for Data Centers
Cloudscaling Joins Open Data Center Alliance
Data Centers Delivered Enters Modular Market
The State of the Modular Data Center
September 17th, 2010