CIOs Should Be Selective While Opting For Cloud Models

As a CIO, I would term cloud computing as a good thing to have happened to the industry. I look forward to adopting this technology.

Broadly there are two clouds available today, one is public and the other is the private cloud. The public cloud comes with its own advantages such as world class practices and ease of manageability.

However, there are some questions that may or may not be answered when we take a deep dive into the public cloud provider’s solutions. Let us take for example– the cost. The short term cost might look very attractive. However, from a long term perspective say a five to seven year window, will the total cost of operation be as attractive as before- is a question. The second issue is about DR. The provider would come up with a strict SLA adherence policy and the kind of facilities set up for DR would be known to us. This transparency is good, but how will things unfold when the real need for DR arises in future, is still a concern.

Another issue is the integration of in-house applications with the cloud provider’s infrastructure because it is certain that we would not like to go whole hog with the cloud model with all applications. What kind of integration capabilities will be offered by the provider is a big question.

Backups is another area of concern. My data is better backed up by me. We can get into some kind of contract related to SLA and data loss with the service provider but what about the third party liability? I understand that I am ultimately responsible for the data loss, but what are the remediation clauses? Will the cloud vendor be responsible for loss of the third party data?

The other major issue from the vendor side is about the delegation of responsibility on who would be responsible for handling the company’s cloud.

The inclusion of penalty in the contract against the cloud vendor subject to third party data loss is highly unlikely because that would be a deterrent for him to sustain the market. It would be an upfront liability for the cloud vendor.

The cloud computing technology is good and should be adopted but with a selective approach and only opting for the required features. ACG Worldwide will go for a private cloud where back up, SLAs, data will be in our control.

These are some of the concerns I have about public cloud which is a reason to consider going for the private cloud.