Applications in the Cloud - Bitpipedocs.media.bitpipe.com/io_10x/io_102306/item_483517/Apps... · 2011-12-16 · 2 APPLICATIONS IN THE CLOUD ... to your security and compliance policies

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Applications in the Cloud

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Copyright © 2011 Google Apps. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction, adaptation, or translation without prior written permission is prohibited, except as allowed under the copyright laws.

Cloud Media Group IT Briefings provide the pertinent information that IT executives and managers need to make educated purchasing decisions. Originating from our industry-leading Vendor Webinars and Expert Webcasts, the IT Briefings turn Webcasts into easy-to-follow technical briefs, similar to white papers.

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CONTENTSThis IT Briefing is based on a Google Apps/TechTarget Webcast, “Applications in the Cloud.”

This IT Briefing covers the following topics:

Introduction to Cloud Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Today’s Business Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Solving Business Problems with Cloud Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Considerations for Cloud App Adoption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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Interest in the cloud is growing, and it’s not just within IT organizations. Busi-

ness executives are asking about cloud-based applications, like Google Apps, that can help them get their jobs done. But this new means of consuming applica-tions raises a number of concerns within IT, some of which are justified and some of which are not. This IT Briefing introduces IT professionals to cloud-based applica-tions – how they compare with locally in-stalled applications, how they can address traditional business challenges and con-siderations for adoption.

Before we dive into cloud-based apps, let’s take a look at the traditional application model. The majority of applications today are locally installed. As a result, these ap-plications are locked to the device, regard-less of whether that device is a laptop, desktop, Windows or Mac. Once the appli-cation is on the device, it is locked to that device. There is no way to take it and ac-cess it from somewhere else.

These applications require IT support and backend infrastructure investment. Keep-

ing up with OS and application migrations is time consuming and labor intensive, as is maintaining applications and keeping them current with patches and updates. You receive patches and updates from the vendor, but before you can roll them out, you must test them. We’ve all heard of or experienced patch rollouts that break more than they fix.

Locally installed applications also involve in-house expertise. IT organizations must staff appropriately, and then invest the nec-essary resources to maintain that expertise over time. Similarly, users must be trained on how to use these applications.

Finally, locally installed applications use local device resources. As a result, the use of resource intensive applications may be restricted and the benefits received from their use not fully realized. I recently worked with an engineering firm that used a program to calculate the stress on a particular bolt when it comes to building or manufacturing. The program is such a resource hog that every time the organiza-tion wanted to run it, they would pass it

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around to figure out whose desktop had the required resources.

INTRODUCTION TO CLOUD APPSNow IT organizations have another option when it comes to deploying applications. In addition to locally installed apps, we have cloud-based apps or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The National Institute of Standards and Technology defines SaaS as follows:

“The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications run-ning on a cloud infrastructure. The appli-cations are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email). The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure includ-

ing network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application ca-pabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configura-tion settings.”

Already, you can see how cloud-based apps differ from locally installed apps. Instead of being locked to a device, cloud-based apps are associated with the user. This means that, with the proper authentication, the user can access the application from any device at any location. I have a Google ac-count, for example, and I log in as Mark Bowker. Regardless of whether I am log-ging in at home on my iPad, at the coffee shop on my laptop or at a trade show from an Internet kiosk, I can log in and access the same corporate applications. I have greater flexibility and am more productive than I used to be with the equivalent, lo-

FIGURE 1: Comparison of application consumption models


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cally installed apps.

Cloud-based applications also leverage infrastructure designed for high-scale and intense user access. Oftentimes the appli-cation is designed and written specifically for that infrastructure. They are also spe-cifically designed for multi-environments, rather than one environment in particular.

Cloud-based applications require fewer internal resources to patch, update and generally maintain. In a cloud-based ap-plication environment, patching occurs au-tomatically. You don’t have to worry about testing patches or when and where to install them. The service provider does it for you, and you don’t even know it is hap-pening. The same goes for updates. One of the big benefits of cloud-based applica-tions is that the provider makes new en-hancements that users can take advantage of immediately.

Similarly, cloud-based applications can be adopted with little or no involvement from the IT organization. They are easy to procure, but they are also easy to use. I don’t want to say that users don’t require training for cloud-based apps, but we are increasingly seeing a limited need for train-ing. These applications are, more and more, are usable out-of-the-box.

Finally, while cloud-based apps are reliant on the corporate network, the IT organiza-tion does not need to invest in or maintain

the backend infrastructure. The underlying cloud infrastructure is maintained by the service provider.

I am often asked what applications are cur-rently deployed or expected to be deployed in as Software-as-a-Service. Enterprise Strategy Group research shows that 35% of companies have deployed or are planning to deploy a cloud-based CRM application. Next on the list is email. Thirty-percent of respondents say they have deployed or are planning to deploy a cloud-based email ap-plication, and I think this is an application we’ll increasingly see move to the cloud because the model addresses the expertise and infrastructure constraints felt by many organizations. The third most common cloud-based app being deployed is collabo-ration/file sharing. This is a class of ap-plications where I think the biggest cloud-based benefits, which we’ll discuss later, can be gained.

TODAY’S BUSINESS CHALLENGESLet’s look at today’s common business challenges. Chief among business chal-lenges is simply the cost of IT, which can be viewed as overhead. But we also know that there is a lot of value to be delivered by IT. In the end, IT organizations are con-stantly trying to find a balance. One of the costs we have to deal with is with staff. Most IT organizations I talk to are under-staffed. They wish they had more staff and expertise, but they are doing the best they


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can. Unfortunately, the majority of the IT organization’s time is spent maintaining the existing environment, not doing any-thing new.

The IT infrastructure – ensuring its reli-ability, capacity and utilization – is another cost generator. It costs a lot to build in reliability, redundancy and purchase ad-ditional capacity. Be it server, storage or network capacity, we are always trying to bring utilization to the highest point. Server virtualization has been helpful from a resource utilization perspective, but we are still running the same applications. We are just moving into a more efficient environment.

Another cost from an IT perspective is lost productivity. Is IT holding back the com-

pany a little bit? In some companies, IT holds back a little bit and keeps employ-ees from being as fully productive as they could be.

Another significant business challenge is security vulnerabilities and their related exploits, such as virus, spam and phish-ing attacks. These are tough ones to live through, but consider how cloud-based ap-plications can help. A lot of organizations already outsource their antispam. They run a cloud-based spam filter.

A business challenge that repeatedly comes up is compliance. I look at cloud-based applications the same way I look at any other platform. You still have to adhere to your security and compliance policies. They don’t go away.

FIGURE 2: Today’s common business challenges


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FIGURE 3: Solving business challenges

Finally, we have the consumerization of IT. This is amazing to me. During conversa-tions with CIOs the consumerization of IT always comes up. It is the number one topic that CIOs and IT decision makers want to discuss. It is driven by the prolifer-ation of endpoints and the mobilization of employees. People bring endpoint devices into their environment, and those devices are changing all the time.

We talked about staff adding to the cost of IT, but organizations are also feeling the pain of staff and expertise shortages. To find out exactly where those shortages ex-ist, we asked survey respondents where their IT organization currently has a prob-lematic shortage of existing skills. The number one answer at 25% is application development. Organizations are missing

the application development skill sets that help move their projects forward.

So, how do you address these business challenges? One option is with cloud-based applications.

SOLVING BUSINESS PROBLEMS WITH CLOUD APPSWhen it comes to lowering the total cost of ownership, cloud-based applications offer some great benefits. Many factors come into play, including the cost of the infra-structure and the elastic nature of SaaS, that drive down the cost to manage, main-tain and secure those applications.

Infinite resource capacity offers fast grow-ing organizations the peace of mind that


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resources will be available when they’re needed. If companies merge, or another department decides to use the application, the capacity will be available. You receive a high-performance application with the net-work and bandwidth capacity you need.

Let’s talk about downtime. We all experi-ence application downtime. With cloud-based applications, you can still experience downtime. I don’t care what platform you deploy on. But, in a lot of cases, the avail-ability provided by the cloud app provider is a lot better than what the corporate IT organization can provide.

Mitigating risk from an overall compli-ance and security perspective can be a lot of work. You get one virus attack and the next thing you know IT is running around refreshing laptops, installing new images, etc., while business productivity dwindles. Being able to do that from the cloud im-proves productivity and doesn’t impact the endpoints.

Finally, cloud-based apps offer access from anywhere, anytime. Increasingly, this is a request from the business. They want to access applications from different devices, any time, from any location. The business benefits are well known. Productivity in-creases when users have access to applica-tions outside of the office and outside of working hours.

Despite these clear business benefits,

some organizations are still hesitant to de-ploy cloud-based apps. Enterprise Strategy Group asked organizations to rank their top concerns that are preventing a wides-cale cloud deployment. Number one on the list are – no surprise – data security and privacy concerns. Granted, security and privacy should be a concern with any type of consumption model. But there are ways to do this intelligently. Nobody is ad-vising you to take 10,000 employees, for example, and move all their applications to the cloud in the next six months. That is not the right way to go about it. But there are ways to look at applications and start moving over and addressing these data se-curity or privacy concerns very early in the adoption cycle.

The next biggest concern amongst IT or-ganizations is loss of control. If you have a lot invested in locally installed applications and a lot of expertise around those appli-cations, then that is a legitimate concern. Maybe you want to wait. But let’s look further out. When will you cycle through that infrastructure? That may be a good trigger point to begin looking at cloud applications.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR CLOUD APP ADOPTIONLet’s look at some of the considerations around cloud application adoption, begin-ning with a cost analysis. You have to un-derstand your current and planned licens-


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ing strategy. Start with what you currently have in house. For example, if I’m working at moving back office applications – col-laboration, e-mail, calendaring, contact list type of things – how do I currently license for that? Do I renew my license agreement with Microsoft, for example? Well, that is going to be a little bit of a different story. I make sure to wait until the licensing starts to run out, and when they come up for re-newal I start to look at cloud applications.

Another cost consideration is the billing structure. In the short term, the monthly recurring costs may be great. I’m a hero inside of IT for enabling e-mail and of-fice productivity tools for ten people in my small organization. There is little to no cost for doing that, and we’re quickly up and running.

But what is the long-term plan for this ap-plication? Who will you target? How much bigger will you scale that environment? Supporting and paying for ten users is much different than 10,000 users. How you will handle that just from an overall billing and budgeting perspective is an im-portant consideration.

Other cost considerations include poten-tial productivity loss, IT turnover and secu-rity breaches. Any of these can incur costs with a locally installed application, but they are important to consider just as well. Us-ers will have to learn a new application and may be resistant. IT managers leave and

so does the knowledge they have of inter-nal systems. A security breach – regardless of the app – could be detrimental.

The second primary consideration for cloud applications is network connectiv-ity. If I take an application, move it to the cloud, consume it from the cloud, and I suddenly don’t have network access, I’m not going to get to that application. We’ve all come to the point where the corporate LAN or WLAN is reliable and resilient and, with minor exceptions, is highly available. But if you move applications out to cloud and you lose access to the Internet, you have no access to that application whatso-ever. So now you have to understand, what is the reliability and availability of the pro-vider’s network? What is the bandwidth, and what are you consuming? What is the resiliency or the latency of that network?

Next, you need to consider security and compliance. Treat cloud applications the same way you treat any other consumption model. Evaluate the risk, and understand how you can enforce security policy and controls. Also, begin your foray into the cloud with back office applications. Pro-ductivity tools offer a moderate risk level. Understand those risks and start there. Also consider regional provider or indus-try-specific expertise to help solve your specific security and compliance problems.

The last consideration is the possibility of a cloud outage. It has happened, and it will

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happen again. Just as IT experiences down-time, the cloud experiences downtime. You need to plan for it. What is your con-tingency plan? How will you work through a cloud outage? How will you handle sup-port with the provider? Does an outage constitute a breach of contract? If so, what are the penalties?

CONCLUSIONAs you can see, some of the consider-ations for adopting a cloud-based applica-tion differ from that of a locally installed application. The cloud offers a new way of delivering IT services to your users, and it requires a new approach to adop-tion. However, once you understand the business case for a cloud-based app and understand how you’ll address issues like security, potential outages and network connectivity, you are in a position to ad-dress business challenges in a whole new way. Instead of contributing to the cost of

IT and hampering user productivity, IT will enable the business.

Mark Bowker is a senior analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group.

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Applications in the Cloud - Bitpipedocs.media.bitpipe.com/io_10x/io_102306/item_483517/Apps... · 2011-12-16 · 2 APPLICATIONS IN THE CLOUD ... to your security and compliance policies