The document discusses 11 things people may not know about cloud computing. It explains that not all clouds are equal in terms of pricing, security, and reliability. It also discusses that clouds may not be as transparent as they seem regarding costs, and that availability is loosely defined. The document advises checking service level agreements and support details before signing up for cloud services.

1. 11 Things You Don’t
Know About Cloud
Rohit Luthra
Rohit.luthra@progression.com

2. The cloud’s great, but it’s still
evolving.
So there’s lots still to know

4. What you already know
The Cloud
 Marks the shift from
 You owning hardware and software and running it to
 You buying a service running on them, or you renting them for
your business needs
 Pay as you go
 Scalable, elastic
 But security issues exist. But it’s the future!

5. Now let’s talk of stuff
that most people don’t know
about…

6. 1. All clouds are not equal
 That’s why pricing of cloud vary so much
 You can build clouds out of commodity hardware and ‘not-yet
mature’ software. You might want to question before running
your ERP on it.
 You can build clouds out of hardware and software that’s
tried, tested, benchmarked, secure, is backed up by technical
experts
 You can find private clouds in state-of-the-art setups or in
dingy basements
 Be aware of your business needs.

7. 2. All clouds are not managed
 You would expect the team you bought compute or storage
from to run it like clockwork, alert you about downtime or
performance bottlenecks, and work proactively to keep your
business going
 Most clouds are NOT managed. There is no proactive
monitoring necessarily unless you pay for it and management
is definitely something you should look for before you sign.
Sometimes you pay 4-5 times of that low-cost server you
signed for.
 Does someone do your backups as per schedules, are they
managed, are you alerted when they fail?
 What’s in the SLA? Check before you sign up.

8. 3. Not as transparent as you think
 It looks cheap, but is it really? Per hour costing tends to make
it look cheap.
 Specifically look at your storage requirements especially when
you have a lot of IOPs needs (databases, large # of
transactions) and you may need to sign up for expensive
storage (and that may be very different from what you
thought it to be initially!!)
 Get a clear picture of your needs, and how they will grow.
And ask how much it will cost over time.

9. 4. Is it secure?
 Likely to be more secure than most businesses running their
own show in-house.
 But even so, threats are increasing manifold on a daily basis
 Enterprise-class security systems must be in place.
 Ask for what is installed, who has access, how is access
given?
 Certifications, practices, security architecture, ask about the
kind of vulnerabilities that have happened in the past.
 Ask your Cloud Service Provider if Security (for example,
Firewall, Intrusion Prevention Systems) services are included
or not and what is that you need to pay for, or is it DIY?

10. 5. Clouds will be increasingly local
 More businesses will move their clouds applications and
hosting to their own countries
 Drivers - Privacy, Government Regulations, Latency
 Remember Snowden?

11. 6. Availability is loosely defined
 Jargon of Tier 2, 3 and 4
 99.9982 (1.6 hrs of downtime per year) – this is Tier 3
 Cloud service providers have to deal with many challenges
(not just power, networks, etc but also OEM patches,
incompatibilities, etc)
 How do you know what you signed up for? And what are you
actually getting?
 If any down-time is something that can kill your business,
set up services across different data centers and/or clouds

12. 7. Support: All talk, no show?
 Is there a number you can call? Is there a human answering
your call?
 Is there someone solving your problem so that the application
doesn’t go down? Or that downtime is averted?
 You have compute, storage, security, VPN, OS, infrastructure.
You have applications on Windows, Unix and Linux.
 Who is responsible for support and maintenance?
 Is there a Single Point of Responsibility?

13. 8. Can I change my CSP/XSP?
 When you sign up for a cloud service, it usually means that
you have signed up for as long as your business application is
operational
 What if you don’t like the service? Or your company merges
with another and you have to migrate the applications?
 Yes, but it can be a breeze or sometimes a lengthy and
cumbersome process. Common standards are still emerging.

14. 9. Careful about licensing
 Pay attention to the licensing models, especially with
Microsoft.
 Does you service provider allow licensing mobility?
 Remember – the cloud is rapidly evolving, please check again
if you need to, for what held true a few months/weeks ago
may not be true anymore

15. 10. It’s a delivery model, not a tech
 Yes it has evolved out of technologies such as grid computing,
utility computing and SaaS (remember ASP?)
 It’s a paradigm shift in how IT is delivered and consumed
 And it ensures better, more optimal use of IT resources
 Great opportunity or threat depending upon how you use it or
respond to it

16. 11. Cloud’s not new!
 As a concept, it’s about 40 years old!
 Resource pooling (time sharing), measured service, and rapid
elasticity...old concepts!
 What has changed – Internet connectivity – availability,
reliability; Mobility, WWW

17. Thank You!
Rohit Luthra
Rohit.luthra@progression.com
in.linkedin.com/in/rohitluthra
@ProgressionInfo