The "Urban legends" of cloud computing and the rigid entrepreneurs

"AWS re:invent" to create business opportunities through Amazon's cloud computing services

November 29, Amazon's Cloud computing services AWS (Amazon WEB Service) in its first end-user conference "AWS Re:invent" title, seems to be conveying the message that it will be through cloud computing for the end user to create business opportunities. There is no doubt that cloud computing is opening a new era in business.

Within a few years, cloud computing has evolved from emerging technologies into today's hot technology. From the 2011 Technical Maturity Report of Gardner Gartner, we can see that cloud computing has now bypassed application bottlenecks and started to really "land". 2012 is the rapid development of cloud computing year, cloud applications and cloud services increasingly rich, cloud computing is becoming an important force to promote economic and social development. Still, many companies still ignore the change and follow the old ways of doing business.

This phenomenon is not only reflected in the sale of enterprises, at the same time, user companies are trying to continue to take the usual way to run the enterprise, the slightest reluctance to make a breakthrough. Their reasons are:

Because the reliability of cloud computing is low;

Because there is no security;

Because the operation of management is not transparent and can not be assured;

These "urban legends" about cloud computing are still being debated by some entrepreneurs. In my view, these are simply excuses for their lack of learning and for avoiding new risks and the fear of losing the technology they have accumulated over the years.

Logging on to the benchmark (benchmark) Web site "Cloud harmony/availability for the last few days" will find that many of the major cloud services are running at 100% uptime.

There are also a number of Japanese cloud computing services on the top of the benchmark list. Moreover, Sier:system integrator, a large system integrator, is absonne to provide 99.999% of its services, so it is not tenable to say that the reliance of cloud computing is low.

In 2012, Google held a press conference in Tokyo to disclose 300 full-time technicians responsible for security. Compared with this, Japan's user enterprises in the Information Systems Department, responsible for security of full-time technicians and how many? In fact, most of them are part-time and professional businesses are completely outsourced.

The US federal government's "cloud Priority Strategy" (Cloud-first Policy) and Amazon Cloud computing services are in line with the 3 companies from Japan SCSK (Sumitomo Corporation), ISID (Electronic Communications International Information Service), NRI (Nomura 総 Institute). The Computer security reference of the computer systems of institutions such as finance, which are fully substantiated by these reports.

The security management concept of cloud computing is different from the previous operation management. In the past, it was equipped with a full-time running technician, and each application was designed to run in a different way and run separately.

However, cloud computing does not do this in the usual way, and cloud computing is run by selecting the operating mode and setting the conditions from the prepared running project list.

The operation itself is packaged parts, and the function and product quality is guaranteed. Therefore, these parts need to be integrated, assembled and used. This means that the operation of cloud computing does not depend on the technical skills of individual technicians, but on the combination of components. Because of this, it is necessary to correctly understand the operational content of the preparation and the operation of each service, otherwise can not be effectively used. As a result, anyone can use the product assurance and standardization of the use of management services.

However, there are services that do not meet these requirements. Because of this, enterprises need to have the ability to collect these relevant information and eyesight. At present, "cloud computing services has gradually become a mature business platform (Enterprise Platform)", this is an indisputable fact.

In the face of these situations, enterprises need to face the facts, through the analysis of their strengths and weaknesses to maximize the effective use of cloud computing. The goal is to reduce TCO (total cost of ownership) and promote effective use of it strategies by enterprises.

However, how should SI operators face this reality and what measures should be taken? We know that the business strategy of large system integrators and small and medium integrators is different.

Large system integrators need to implement strategic choice, through the critical task (mission-critical) Si case, to provide cloud computing services to consolidate their market position, or actively promote a thorough commercialization strategy to counter such as Amazon cloud computing providers. Ultimately, large system integrators have to choose between them. Because of the lack of complete SaaS and ambiguous attitude, it will eventually lead to the loss of their living space.

On the other hand, small and medium system integrators can maximize their already commercialized cloud computing services, carry out development that only large system integrators can do in the past, or offer outsourced Ito (IT outsourcing) services.

Another option is to focus on a specific area and develop SaaS commerce using previously accumulated technology from the field and business. This means that it does not cost its own assets, and that it is easier to expand or "retreat". Therefore, enterprises need to recognize their own advantages and consider how to turn them into services. Also, you need to consider ways to approach users directly. If, as in the past, taking the business of being willing to accept a large system integrator in order to evade its own risk, there will be no future for the enterprise.

Admittedly, there are still many companies hesitant to linger, but we have to face the great changes in the times, even if this will shake the company's past to obtain the basis for income. Because, this is the trend of the times, whether we like it or not, we have to face and accept these changes. In this era of technological change, if blindly stick to the rut, then, business opportunities are fleeting. But unfortunately, many companies are in fact stuck in a "stop thinking" cycle.