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Yesterday I talked about the cloud broker as the aggregation of more than simply cloud service providers. Over time this will allow organizations to moderate cloud costs more effectively by allowing them to take lowest cost technically acceptable options every time instead of only on those occasions when it is safe.
Infrastructure or in the cloud world IaaS is a red ocean. It will remain a red ocean for the future as well. Sure there are innovations that will change the oceans color for a short time, but those will be short lived.
The real value in cloud computing is the creation of aggregated services. This may include some concepts that aren’t actually wholly cloud today but may become that as we go forward.
Portability – it’s a cloud phrase and expectation but the reality of portability may be as much skills as anything. Migrating off SQL, DB2 or Oracle isn’t just a knowledge of how the two independent systems work its an understand of the capabilities of each of the systems. Each is highly effective and preforms well in specific areas. Each has areas of weakness. Building a replica solution to move your DB2 infrastructure to Oracle will reduce your performance. The cloud you choose and the solution you design is as much about that specific cloud’s capabilities as it is anything. Today cloud portability is a solution by solution problem that has nothing to do with the cloud until you are ready to migrate.
Security – it’s the number one problem with the cloud according to CIO’s – its one I’ve talked about many times. Who do you want cutting out that brain tumor in your head? The surgeon with over 1000 successful tumors removed or the surgeon doing his 3rd? That is often the difference when you start talking about the cloud security team versus the on-premise security team. The cloud team sees many more attacks every day. But security goes even further than that – down to the overall concept of end to end security. Regardless of where that end actually is (a Starbucks, a smart phone, my house).
Its why I have come to realize that market for Brokers is growing. I liken it to the middle ages when the pots, pans and books merchant went from town to town. They would get and bring anything if they were asked. They in the end were the lifeline between the towns bringing news, edicts from the ruler, essential supplies and luxuries. That is the future I see for Cloud Brokers.
.doc
Scott Andersen
IASA Fellow