It doesn't happen often, Carl, but I'm going to slightly disagree with you.
Yes, Cloud Computing is an aspect of outsourcing, but it is a more limited aspect, less prone to many of the difficulties that plague larger endeavors such as the wholesale importing of external IT services at the desktop support level. Not every targeted outsourcing/hosting project succeeds, of course, but there are far more ongoing success stories than for the larger endeavors. Web hosting, DNS services, email services, collocation services, security/compliance assessments and telephone call centers are routinely performed outside the four walls of an organization with a high degree of success. Much of the failure for these and larger initiatives stems from the following: - Not having an understanding of what service is being provided, and therefore contracting for something inadequate for the business needs - Outsourcing problem areas without first fixing underlying process issues - Focusing only on "cost" without considering service levels - Attempting to avoid responsibility or hiring of appropriately skilled staff I definitely agree that people see cloud, virtualization, and out-sourcing as panaceas, (largely because they don't understand the problem they are looking to solve in the first place), and this results in failed implementation. When your service is managed by others, you still need to have someone who is knowledgeable about how things should work, even if they don't have the skill or direct resources to make them work that way. Without suitable oversight, almost all service outsourcing will fail. Conversely, with even moderate oversight, and organization can manage to create a good balance between internal resources and external support/resources to achieve technology improvement more cost-effectively than all-internal staffing might allow. -ASB: http://XeeSM.com/AndrewBaker On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 7:46 AM, Carl Houseman <[email protected]> wrote: > Cloud computing is just the next version of "outsourcing". So how did > outsourcing work out? Lately I'm hearing of companies insourcing jobs that > didn't do so well when outsourced. Learning experience achieved, albeit at > great expense. But will this new-found knowledge stick, and will it be > applied to similar situations in the future? > > As I said, over-enthusiastic execs at some companies will see the cloud as > a panacea for their problems and jump in before realizing it's not right for > them. I don't know that predicting that future here will help to make some > think twice, but I feel better for having said it. :) > > Carl > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Hornbuckle [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 7:37 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Cloud Computing (Was: DNS Server service shuts down shortly after > the DC boots) > > For all its flaws, I don't see cloud computing as a passing fad. It's not > likely to go away, so the best we can do is to work to improve it. > > I can tell you that my own organization is a big fan of it. Why? Well, > we're a school district. Our core competency isn't the maintenance of > complex IT system. We don't have the staff with the knowledge to maintain > such systems, and we don't have the money to hire that staff. Our staffing > levels have actually shrunk due to budget cuts, while the number of various > systems and applications we're using is continuing to grow. Every new app > means more storage space, more backup job complexity, more hardware > utilization, more support requirements, more time troubleshooting, more time > upgrading--the list goes on and on. > > So what can we do? Outsource the maintenance of as many systems as possible > to companies who specialize in that type of work (so they can almost always > do it better than us) and who gain economies of scale (so they can almost > always do it cheaper than us). Put the app in the cloud, and let someone > else worry about things like backups, upgrades, and support. And having it > web-based has the added benefit of there being no client-side software for > us to have to worry about. > > Reliability hasn't been a factor for us with our cloud-based apps. Our > Internet connection is pretty reliable. If it goes down, we have alternate > means of connecting to our most critical apps. Security? Well, the best we > can do there is to have a good contract stipulating our requirements and the > consequences of security breaches. I'm the most advanced tech in our > organization, but I'm not a security expert--I'm a technology generalist, > not a specialist. That means these companies can handle security AT LEAST as > well as we can, and often better. > > It's not right for every organization and every application. But for us, > cloud computing offers significant benefits. We're leaning more and more on > it all the time. > > > > John Hornbuckle > MIS Department > Taylor County School District > www.taylor.k12.fl.us > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kurt Buff [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 11:36 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: DNS Server service shuts down shortly after the DC boots > > Oh, yeah. > > Somehow, though, it seems to me as if 'the cloud' violates the CIA > triangle of security. > > At the very least, > > a) availability is compromised (if you don't have Internet > connectivity, among other things), > > b) integrity is compromised (new ways of breaking out of VMs to the > underlying host, and you don't know who you're sharing a physical host > with, not to mention issues with network traffic from the various VMs > on a physical host being sniffed.) > > Color me deeply skeptical. > > On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 17:34, Carl Houseman <[email protected]> wrote: > > Seems the 'cloud' is the new buzzword for how we're going to increase > > profits next quarter. The cloud will save us! The cloud will reduce our > > expensive fixed costs! Has Dilbert done something on the cloud yet? If > > > > not, it's just a matter of time. > > > > > > > > From: David Lum [mailto:[email protected]] > > Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 5:00 PM > > To: NT System Admin Issues > > Subject: RE: DNS Server service shuts down shortly after the DC boots > > > > > > > > True, but I’ll use OpenDNS way before using Google or MS DNS servers… > > > > > > > > The cloud the cloud…everything is cloud around my office with exec’s > > …“SharePoint’s broke and we have no expertise here…move it to the cloud! > > Exchange, Live Communications Server, ship –‘em all out!” > > > > > > > > From: Carl Houseman [mailto:[email protected]] > > Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 1:26 PM > > To: NT System Admin Issues > > Subject: RE: DNS Server service shuts down shortly after the DC boots > > > > > > > > Not everyone wants to depend on DNS services 'in the cloud' even if > they're > > free... > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
