How to buy cloud intelligently

04/30/18 • 11 min

Today on the show: we give you the vocabulary and tools to buy cloud in an intelligent way.

Prologue

So, you have decided to buy cloud! Good decision. Cloud provides a lot of benefits such as flexibility, evergreen versions and cost effectiveness. If you look around - surf the internet or visit an expo - you'll find that there are so many options for a cloud provider. Each and every one of them claims to be the best in some metric, and they are the one you should choose. However, how can you evaluate them? You might be wondering, which provider should I trust? What should I ask them? What should I keep in mind when purchasing cloud.

In this episode, we give you the vocabulary and ammunition to buy cloud in an intelligent way. To get to the bottom of purchasing cloud, we will first have to discuss and figure out what the cloud actually is. Usually the cloud is categorized into 3 different sections. They are Software as a service also known as SaaS, Platform as a service known as PaaS and Infrastructure as a service, IaaS.

See the pattern? It’s no longer about old-school servers, now it’s all about services. The choice is between level of control and responsibilities: This means that in Infrastructure as a service we get most control but have more responsibilities than in the Platform as a service or Software as a service models. A handy way of thinking about this is that with Software as a Service you buy ready made solution, like a stuffed bear or a Star Wars figure. With platform as a service you build the figure from building blocks -- like you would build up a Lego set from given blocks. And with Infrastructure as a Service you literally build the blocks yourself, for example by 3d printing them and then building the toy from the blocks that you built yourself.

Understanding the differences in cloud areas is particularly important to avoid cloud washing! That happens when a company is selling traditional datacenter capacity as cloud, meaning that you don’t get the benefits of the cloud. So you gotta be careful! Most companies who are "in the cloud" use Software as a Service: for example Google Gmail for email service in the cloud, Dropbox for storing your files in the cloud or Microsoft Office 365 for emails and file storage. You can learn more about cloud service models in the episode - What is the cloud. For this episode, we are ready to get to the juicy stuff.

Cloudwashing, contract length and migration readiness

We are going to highlight some of the biggest obstacles companies might face. They are cloudwashing, contract length and migration readiness. We will begin by looking into the first notorious obstacle, cloudwashing, through an example.

In this case a company was facing the end of their email software lifecycle: they needed to upgrade their email software. Last time they upgraded, it took them 6 months and multiple failures to get the new system running. And on top of that, their best email administrator had since retired. They wanted to move into an “evergreen” system - meaning that the email service is always upgraded to the latest version. They chose to go to a traditional service provider who promised them all the power of the cloud without the downsides. However, it turned out that the email service provided was actually the same version that the company was trying to move away from. And the service provider had a larger customer using the same email service. The larger customer had their own business reasons to upgrade in a slower pace. So the company got stuck with the old version until the other customer allows the service provider to upgrade the email service. Our unfortunate company is a victim of cloud washing: they had paid for a cloud service, but got traditional it solutions.

Let's look into the second obstacle, contract length. A company might have an existing contract that lasts for multiple years. During that time, even if they stopped using the service, they would still pay the same amount. This means that even if they would have migrated their software to the cloud, they wouldn’t achieve the cost effectiveness of the cloud. They would essentially pay for two contracts at the same time.

And about the third obstacle: migration readiness. Migration means the movement of software from one server to another. This is a huge change, so it requires careful planning in order to keep daily business running. The company needs to ensure their IT professionals have the right skill set to perform the migration. Once the migration is completed, the end-users need to be trained in order to be productive in the new environment.

Best Practices

So now that we know what pitfalls to avoid, we can move on towards the good tips you can use. Let's list some best practices! These are the things you should ask from potential vendors and companies you are considering. We have 4 questions for you to ask, a...

Today on the show: we give you the vocabulary and tools to buy cloud in an intelligent way.

Prologue

Cloudwashing, contract length and migration readiness

Best Practices

Previous Episode

What is the cloud?

Today on the show: Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, Software as a Service. What are these cloud service models and how do they compare? Nice of you to join us!

Prologue##

The famous cloud advocate David Chappell has defined three most important events of post-dotcom boom IT world. The first event was the IPO of Salesforce Dot Com in 2004. It proved that the Software-as-a-Service is a serious business model.

The second event was the launch of Amazon Web Services in 2006, which was the first public cloud platform.

And the third event was the release of the original Apple iPhone in 2007. It started the mobile-first era with the phones eventually becoming tiny computers in our pockets.

The common enabler behind all these 3 important events was the cloud. So, the cloud in all its forms has been instrumental in major developments in the IT world.

So, it's important to understand what exactly the cloud is and what are its different variations.

##SaaS, PaaS or IaaS
We will start the episode by defining the terms and needed concepts an then we will move onto how they have shaped the world. Software-as-a-Service or SaaS is a business model where software companies sell their products for a monthly subscription instead of a one-time purchase. Examples of Software-as-a-Service cloud services are Salesforce Dot Com, Google Gmail, Dropbox and Microsoft Office 365.

But why is it called Software as a Service? It means that we don't install the software ourselves. We don't have to worry about the servers, we don't have to worry about updating the software. We just use the service. We can add our own files and account details, and even change the background color to our liking. The amount of customization that we can do or administration that we have to do is limited. Software-as-a-Service cloud model is about getting ready-made software that we can start using right away. If we want to change how the software behaves, we are limited to what the cloud service provider allows us to customize.

So how does Platform-as-a-Service model differ from Software-as-a-Service? In Platform-as-a-Service cloud model the cloud service provider gives us a set of so-called "building blocks" and we can build virtually any software with those building blocks. For example, a Platform-as-a-Service cloud provider can let us host websites on their platform. We just have to write the code that puts the building blocks together. This is the key difference: in the Platform-as-a-Service model we have to build the software ourselves, whereas in the Software-as-a-Service model we just use the existing application as it is.

In Infrastructure-as-a-Service model we have even more control. This means that the cloud provider is taking care of the datacenter: physical venue, servers, network capacity, electricity, heating, ventilation and cooling. The Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud provider takes care of the physical hosting for us. We just get remote access to the virtual machines, and storage. We can do essentially anything with the servers: we can install any operating system or any software in them. We can build our own software on top of them.

As a developer, I like Platform-as-a-Service, because that makes me most productive and I don’t have to worry about the virtual machines as in Infrastructure-as-a-Service. I only have to take care of the coding.

Challenges

So why did people start moving to Software-as-a-Service in growing numbers since 2004 & Salesforce? One of the reasons arises from comparing the on-premises and cloud worlds -- the speed of change. Previously, if a company wanted to use email, they had to install the email systems to their own data center. Even if they outsourced the data center to a hosting provider, the steps would still be numerous: plugging in a new server, installing the operating system and finally installing and configuring the email software.

This clearly will take up quite a bit of time. And that's not all! Getting the software in place is not enough. With any software that we are responsible of, there comes the need to update. We would need security updates at least once a month. If there is a new version of the email software, an upgrade or "migration" would have to be made, for example every 5 years. All of these tasks take a lot of time and expertise.

On the cloud world, the cloud provider is doing the difficult work of installing and validating updates and keeping the services running. With that, the IT organization can have more time on their hands. So, they can actually start thinking on how to use these tools better. Regardless of who is responsible of the software maintenance, it's actually all about change management. When you perform any number of updates in an existing software, you essentially change things.

And as long as there are changes, there are always...

Next Episode

Software & scaleups with Mike Martin

Mike Martin is going to talk to us about his role in the company, how ISVs and the Microsoft OCP operate, his thoughts on the future of tech, and the importance of diversity and inclusion in IT and outside of it.

He’s also going to share some key advice to future startups and scale-ups and he’ll explain his approach to software creation and what he believes are the key factors companies should focus on.

Mike’s going to talk about how he communicates with his team and how to provide constructive criticism in a way that encourages others.

We’re also going to learn more about Mike’s favorite communities, the importance of Ecology, and some of his personal experiences working with ISVs.

Guest Bio:

Mike Martin works for Microsoft Western Europe as Cloud Solution Architect for ISV's with a focus on the Microsoft Cloud Platform.

He’s been active in the IT industry for more than 20 years and has performed almost all types of job profiles, going from coaching and leading a team to architecting and systems design and training.

Today he’s primarily into the Microsoft Cloud Platform and Application Lifecycle Management. He’s not a stranger to both dev and IT Pro topics. On April 1st 2013 he also became a Microsoft Azure MVP, an award he managed to get 5 years in a row.

Quote

"Think about how your business model should evolve and what you need to do next inside of your business model. Thinking of features it's not hard. Thinking of the next move in becoming a large enterprise......that's the hardest part." Mike Martin

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