The roots of cloud computing date back to the late 1990s, but the “cloud” continues to evolve—as does the conversation about its impact on technology and business. So I welcomed the opportunity to moderate a discussion of cloud past, present and future at Dell’s recent 1-5-10 Cloud roundtable in Washington DC. Dell’s 1-5-10 series is designed to engage Dell customers, executives and influencers in discussions exploring the implications of major tech trends over the one, five and ten years
Top Takeaways
The cloud means different things to different people–but “game changer” is the common thread. We kicked off the roundtable by asking participants to describe cloud in three words or less. Customers chose descriptors such as cost-effective, flexible, reliable and mobile. For instance, Edima Elingewinga, Executive Director, Information Technology at the United Nations Foundation, used mobile as a key descriptor, noting that “Cloud facilitates communication all around the world. That is critical, and that is what drove us to the cloud.” Meanwhile, Dell execs used terms such as digital services enablement, future-ready, and scalable to describe the cloud. However the group was in consensus that the cloud is a game-changer for businesses, government and non-profits.
Federal government adoption of cloud has slowed since the Cloud First policy was established. Cloud First is an initiative launched in 2011 by then US CIO Vivek Kundra. The policy mandated that government agencies had to evaluate a cloud computing option first, and had to have a strong rationale on why they could not use cloud before they could purchase traditional on-premises solutions. As Dell Director of Product, Cloud Management Systems James Urquhart noted, “If you look at this from 2010-2013, you’d have to argue that the federal government as a whole was ahead of the enterprise” with a top-down approach and mandate. But, despite early advocacy and some marquee cloud deals, federal adoption has been more sluggish than many had anticipated, as noted in a 2014 report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), CLOUD COMPUTING : Additional Opportunities and Savings Need to Be Pursued. David Lancaster, Dell Federal marketing executive, believes that this is due in part to different agencies having different requirements for different types of clouds—which makes the sourcing process complex and time-consuming. “The federal government is more concerned about private cloud because of security,” added Dr. Lon D. Gowen, chief technologist and special advisor to the CIO at USAID. According the GAO report, legacy migration concerns, cultural barriers and skills deficits also put a drag on adoption.
- The silver lining in Cloud First is that it sparked adoption in the private sector. Government endorsement of Cloud First paved the way for the private sector to become more bullish on cloud adoption. As Edina Elinewinga, commented, “If the government can trust the cloud, we can trust the cloud.” As a result, private sector adoption is now outpacing that of the federal government.
Cloud computing decisions are becoming more strategic and complex. Whether in business or government, cloud conversations are evolving into discussions of how cloud computing can provide strategic business benefits. As Executive Director and General Manager of Dell Cloud Services Jeremy Ford commented, “The cloud is an enabler, not the point of the discussion. The more organizations view it as an enabler, the more successful they’ll be.” Dell Vice President and General Manager for Engineered Solutions and Cloud Jim Ganthier observed that the conversation is shifting away from “either/or” private or public cloud to one of an “and” conversation in an increasingly hybrid cloud computing world. As Dr. Phil Yang, director of the NSF Spatiotemporal Innovation Center stated, “Choosing the right cloud is like match making, you need to think of it like uber legos.” Participants agreed that most organizations will choose to utilize both public and private clouds, depending on a requirements, constraints and other considerations.
- Cloud is changing the role of IT. As the cloud conversation shifts to business enablement, IT is increasingly expected to serve as a strategic advisor to the business. Edina Elinewinga said that she has become more of a technology broker in her role now. In addition, IT must assume responsibility for developing a coherent strategy to guide organizations in how to use and integrate different types of cloud deployment models and providers.
- Cloud will become the fabric of our lives. Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) will drive cloud growth over the next 10 years, affecting every aspect of cloud decision-making—from infrastructure and management to strategy requirements. “Big data and IoT are examples of usage models that wouldn’t have been practical or enabled without the cloud,” observed Jeremy Ford. “In about 10 years, everything will be part of the cloud, and we won’t use the word cloud to describe what we are using,” according to Dr. Phil Yang. And Jim Ganthier predicts that “We won’t be talking about “the cloud” in the future. It will be all about the data generated and how we use it.”
Privacy and security concerns will continue to be top of mind cloud concerns–and power issues will enter the discussion. Privacy and security issues will intensify as more devices, more data comes into play. Edina Elinewinga noted that she is focused on how to keep the work environment and data secure as more and more UN Foundation employees bring different technologies and applications into work. As cloud computing becomes more ubiquitous, power issues will also arise. Dr. Lon D. Gowen predicted, that we’ll need “power over the airwaves to enable future generations of cloud computing.
Summary and Perspective
The cloud conversation is increasingly centered on business problem solving, enablement and innovation. And, big data and IoT are likely to fuel exponential growth in cloud adoption and use cases beyond what most of us can even imagine today.
However, as cloud computing becomes a ubiquitous solution for more problems, cloud alternatives and issues are also becoming more numerous, nuanced. Cloud choices will also become more inter-dependent and related. As complexity and choice expands, brokerage services will become essential in helping most organizations navigate the cloud landscape.
As business reliance on the cloud grows, IT and business decision-makers must align to meet business requirements and optimize long-term security, agility and flexibility with cloud solutions. Both groups will also need guidance and education to build a common foundation from which they can engage to optimize their cloud investments.
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