Cloud will not fix everything

As a CIO of a multinational, I have had solid real-world commercial and technical experience of implementing private cloud and integrating it with public cloud in the enterprise (IT chiefs warned over cloud’s hidden costs). The sentiments expressed in this article are very true: that the reality sometimes bears no relation to the hype about the cloud being quick, easy and cheap.

After I transformed my organisation’s entire IT cost base to a ‘per-user per-month per-application’ model, I could show that supposedly low-cost SaaS CRM was more expensive than our BI system, and well above the ERP system. Not to mention the complexity and effort in managing the SaaS system’s governance to meet minimum [Systems Development Life Cycle] SDLC change control criteria.

Moreover, the utility computing/electricity grid analogy is only vaguely true as the interchange barriers for cloud are rich with cost, risk and governance challenges for the unwary. The analogy is like having to rewire all or part of your house whenever you want to switch electricity providers.

In the right hands, and with the right due diligence, SaaS has the potential to be extremely powerful and even transformational, but it’s not the solution to the world’s IT problems.
Rob Livingstone