Getting the benefits of the cloud without actually using the cloud

As a technical term, ‘the cloud’ has reached a point of oversaturation, leading many - particularly government - organisations to question the value of the concept. Cloud computing is not for everyone, but it is possible to be ‘cloud-like’ without actually entering the cloud, says Wayne Allen, Unisys Asia-Pacific data centre transformation and outsourcing practice lead.

In the world of overhyped IT concepts, cloud is the new e-business. Not surprisingly, “cloud” was ranked the fifth most overused word in press releases in 2011 behind “solution”, “best”, “leading” and “top” (‘The most overused jargon in press release headlines’, Ragan’s PR Daily). The term has become so overused that many IT managers are now sceptical of the benefits being claimed and automatically switch off at the mention of cloud.

This seems to be particularly true of many Australian government organisations, which are already gun shy about moving to a cloud environment because of the potential risks and are far less likely to run applications in the cloud than their commercial counterparts. For instance, a poll of 111 attendees at the CA World Expos in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra* found that 57% of government respondents said they run no applications in the cloud compared to 36% of commercial organisations.

Unfortunately, they are also so tired of the hype around cloud computing that they risk overlooking the potential for other cloud-like approaches such as virtualisation and automation. These approaches, often used to prepare an IT environment for cloud adoption, can by themselves serve to reduce costs and make IT infrastructure more scalable, modular and mobile. These happen to be some of the same positive features driving the adoption of cloud, thus, you can be ‘cloud like’ without actually entering the cloud.

Government agencies face many of the same IT issues as commercial organisations: managing capacity demands, streamlining processes and building an organisation that can quickly respond to changing business needs. However, they must achieve these levels of innovation within the unique constraints of a government environment; from citizen expectation and public scrutiny around data security and privacy, through to requirements for data sovereignty, while also taking into account the impact of foreign government legislation such as the US Patriot Act.

So it is surprising that when asked what they would do differently next time they implemented cloud services into their IT environment, 25% of government respondents said they wanted to make better use of existing IT infrastructure, yet only 9% said they would put greater focus on virtualising and automating the existing environment, compared to 25% of their peers in commercial organisations.

While the survey indicates that government organisations want to make better use of their existing IT infrastructure, they could be overlooking virtualisation and automation techniques as a means of achieving that goal.

Perhaps they are overlooking these approaches as they are often used in a cloud environment or context, and are not being considered on their own merit - ie, they may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

*The survey was conducted by Unisys as a poll of 111 attendees at CA World Expo, a series of CA Technologies end-user events held in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne in July 2011. The 111 responses comprised 46 responses from government organisations, 61 from commercial organisations and 4 from non-profits. 61% of organisations had at least 3000 employees.

Unisys notes that this is an opinion piece and is intended only to provide a summary of the subject matter covered. It does not purport to be comprehensive or to render advice. No reader should act on the basis of any matter contained in this piece without first obtaining specific professional advice.

*Wayne Allen leads the Data Centre Transformation and Cloud Computing practice for Unisys in Australia and New Zealand. He joined Unisys in 2010 as Executive Architect focusing on Cloud Advisory and Cloud Build Services. Prior to Unisys, Wayne held senior architect and design roles within the Telstra Group, Mincom, Asia Online and Advantra.