2. Overview
Common Language
Key Considerations
Main Goal
Twitter
Speaker: @piewords
Hashtag: #AIIMNE
3. the window for gaining advantage
from an infrastructural technology is
open only briefly.
-Nicholas Carr
“IT Doesn’t Matter”, 2003
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2007/01/it_doesnt_matte.php
Why am I talking about this?Almost 2 decades in Content ManagementArchitected cloud system in IaaS infrastructureTrying to close my data center now, all servers must go
First we are going establish the terms which are used in the industry and will be thrown around during this session and others.We are then going to address the key factors that people need to take under consideration before making the jumpFinally, we are going to discuss the main goals of any cloud initiativeSurveyAre you in the cloud?Are you planning on going?Did you take the title literally and want to learn a lot?
Other quotes from same article“What makes a resource truly strategic – what gives it the capacity to be the basis for a sustained competitive advantage – is not ubiquity but scarcity.”“They are becoming costs of doing business that must be paid by all but provide distinction to none.”Cloud is a competitive advantage now.Email is not a competitive advantage. It is cost of doing business. Cloud will be the same one day.Cloud is HereCloud can make your life easierIf you thinking about it, competitors are as well
It is a magical land where life is good and happy.It is also a lot of hype. However, beneath the hype there is a lot of value.Credit:http://www.picturesdepot.com/places/19613/disneyland+castle+with+micky+and+minnie.html
Used to call the cloud the Internet ( picture circa 2007, data from the DIMES Project)Constantly changingKey word for todays Cloud is ServiceResources are metered, on-demand, and expands/contracts as necessary (elasticity)http://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Visualizations/InternetMap
Infrastructure as a ServiceStorage, ServersDeploying applicationsPlatform as a ServiceBuilding solutionsContent Management Services, ECM PlatformNuxeo, any SaaS with strong APISoftware as a ServiceSolutionsCollaboration focusedBox, Office365,SpringCM
Public is what everyone thinks of when they think cloud. It is housed in the wilds of the Internet. Think a safari park though, not the depths of the Amazon.Image: http://gawker.com
Private is the taking of the virtualized architecture with all the Service concepts and deployed internally. This is only really feasible with large enterprises because it is much more complex than it sounds. Enterprise scale is required to get the investment made during the initial build-out. Image: http://homesdesigns.net/home-theatre/home-theatre-design.php
Hybrid is a mix of Public and Private. This is actually a not a bad place to be for most organizations as some systems can be moved to the public cloud and others can be kept internally. This also applies to the sensitivity of content. Some is very sensitive and not needed by external people anyway. Image: http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/35226
Mobile is a fact of life. Cloud applications have been designed with a mobile first methodology. Going Mobile means going BYOD. Your operating system support increases.What if the phone is lost? What is stored locally? Can it be safely governed?Hard thing is when all but one app supports BYOD. That leads to dissatisfaction.Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chberge/3932023011/sizes/z/
Let’s talk about the key considerations. The first is that the cloud will save money.Maybe.It may not save money, the larger the organization the less it saves over internal efforts.If you have issues or things have to be fixed anyway, greater savings can be realizedRemember, moving to the cloud has a cost simply by moving systems.Of course, deployments are cheaper as customizations are not are possible to the Service layer. This forces you to adopt more standard practices and evaluate the important features versus the ones that are just “because”.Some Services allow you to customize, but they may charge money. Know this in advance.TCO should include implementation, migration, depreciation, and the cost of running the system yourself (labor)Every other factor is tied to cost
If you think your system is secure, you are wrong.If you let anyone use your system outside of your physical office, it is hackable.Hackers can get into any system. Period.Most breaks are from social engineering which happen just as well for internal systems as external.Established cloud vendors are constantly being tested by hackersMaking content accessible increases security because people stop trying to circumvent itWhen dealing with Authentication, Trust is keyYou have to trust the system and the company behind itThe smaller the company, the more important the personal trust
SaaS apps are new, focus is on architecture,usability, and being “cool”, features are still in developmentFollowing the traditional vendors in some ways, just cleaner user interfaces and refined delivery modelsContent Management is well understood, but not to the same degree as CRM systemsToo much flexibility required after Basic Content ServicesWorkflowContent ModelsAutomationTransformationRecords ManagementAdvanced User Management and other Admin Controls
Forget silos. Those were easy. We are dealing with potential islands.Bridging or just ferrying information is tricky, especially when authentication and authorization are founded in separate systems (look for identity management features)Cloud environment are not ecosystems, they are stand-alone.The integration is up to you. Some may link to other more popular SaaS systems, but you need to check.Many have APIs to link back home, some even support standards, but check and double-check.Some third parties integrate different systems, but they cost extra and are limited in supported vendorSome will charge extra to use the APIs but trend should regressIslands: http://www.citypictures.org/r-islands-223-bay-of-islands-new-zealand-2622.htmCool, unused, silo picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66742614@N00/231397910
This isn’t just simply maintaining controlCan you get the information out when needed? In a timely fashion? Regardless of the volume? What does it cost?What if the provider goes out of business? Are you protected? Is your data?Read the fine print.Google can use your contentYammer and others, employees own it until you start paying
This is the tricky issue. The data has to be heavily protected and many laws state that the data cannot leave the country. Poses a problem for cloud providers.Due to the harmonization of data protection law by European law, a transfer or personal data to third parties within the EEA is treated as if it took place within the territory of Germany, i.e. it is admissible if explicitly permitted by the BDSG or any other legal provision or if the data subject has explicitly consented in advance.In US, Patriot Act is a big storm cloud. Non-US organizations are hesitant to subject themselves to the rules/monitoring. US-based cloud providers are also subject to the law. If you are a US organization, it doesn’t matter as you are subject to it. Even US organizations storing information outside the US are subject to the Act. Meanwhile, there are various state rules regarding privacy to consider though those apply more to individual issues.Seizures of servers is a tools law enforcement has used. In a cloud environment, what does that translate to when data can be spread over multiple servers. This is a big grey area and will be until the courts hear cases.http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57450153-93/doj-tries-to-block-return-of-data-to-megaupload-user/“European data protection authorities take the position that personal data transferred to the United States under the US EU Safe Harbor principles may not be transferred outside the US without another valid legal basis.”
Do you know what countries data passes through?It isn’t enough to know where data is stored, you need to know where it goes. When it passes through a country, it is subject to those laws, including monitoring. This is even more challenging when considering the decentralized nature of the InternetImage: http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/main/2010/05/11/feature-03
Lawyers as a ServiceThe Cloud providers don’t want legal issues with one client to impact another. Meanwhile, people are putting things in the cloud now, so all of this could impact you without leaving you any recourse.Megaupload case. Kyle Goodwin is suing to get his content back. Photographer and had his backups up there. His drive crashed and couldn’t pull stuff down. Government started scouring his data looking for pirated information, while stating they can’t return it
Azure went down on February 29, 2012Windows Azure Compute and dependent services, including Access Control Access, the Windows Azure Service Bus, SQL Azure Portal and Data Sync Services. Other services — Windows Azure Storage and SQL Azure database services — were not affectedYear +1, Certificate creation failure, digit versus formula, cascading issueshttp://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2012/03/09/summary-of-windows-azure-service-disruption-on-feb-29th-2012.aspxAmazon goes does very publically, latest was Christmas Eve and impacted NetflixBugs are universalDatabase locksService Level AgreementTime to RecoverData loss, backupsEconomies of scale, +1 recoveryMy hostedwebsite went down 6 hours due to a power loss. I immediately dropped to 3 nines for the year.
So why do this? Two simple reasons regardless of organization…YOU!Allows you to focus on the Core BusinessInnovation is more possible when not stuck in the “routine”
What have we discussed?Cloud is big and evolving. If your solution isn’t available today, it may be tomorrowYou face the same issues if you stay at home as you would if you move to the cloudCreating new Information Islands is the new big trap. Avoid them. You are going to have a hybrid environment unless you build a big private cloud to host everythingRemember these things and you’ll be successful
