The Journey to a Cloud Architecture

It's never long into a cloud computing coversation that I make it clear my focus is on the 'journey' to a cloud platform, more so than that of the actual cloud platform itself. For too long have we watched the cloud provider price wars - who has the utility model with the better ROI - between the top players. Even the forming of a cloud comparison web site, Compare the Cloud, to help would-be buyers with their selection. However, missing from these campaigns has been an acknowledgement that consuming cloud services is much more than just a financial financial decision. In terms of service adoption, there lacks an 'easy' button.

A few providers have noticed this gap in the market - the requirement of a simpler adoption process to entice new business. A number of these providers have changed their business models from pure utility compute (IaaS) to Managed Services. For example, Rackspace anouncing earlier this year its managed Openstack solution. This one is interesting as I noted at the Openstack 2014 conference in Atlanta a lot of representation from the many clever coders/scripters that have made Openstack what it is today. However, where was 'average Joe'? Many of these revolutionary new technologies required a level of expertice not yet commonplace in the enterprise. For those, a managed openstack offering allows them to realize the benefits while avoiding much of the risk.

Also along these lines, it was great to see Microsoft announce this week (Dec 12th) that it will opensource its cloud framework behind the award winning Halo 4 computer game. Great to see Microsoft sharing the wealth - by wealth I refer to the best kind, knowledge. And it has its benefits to Microsoft, allowing them to show off what can be achieved on its .NET platform.

Its great to see these changes and I welcome more of the same. Many organisations have attempted a migration to cloud platforms only to have failed upon finding that, unlike with simple consumer cloud services, its not as simple as a drag-and-drop of the mouse when moving an complex enterprise application.  

Acceelrating cloud adoption is all about simlifiying the journey. I hope to see a mass abadonment of the 'build it and they will come' attitude that is common of many proivers today.