Use cloud providers, because you can't compete with their R&D budgets, argues expert panel

'My IT team can't build a different version of Docker just to make my life easier, but AWS can,' says Trainline head of platform delivery

Businesses should use the cloud to host their infrastructure and applications because cloud providers' development budgets far outstrip those at most other firms.

That's one of the views to emerge from Computing's Cloud and Infrastructure Summit, held recently in central London.

Speaking as part of a panel session, David Stanley, head of platform delivery at the Trainline, admitted that in some instances it's cheaper to run IT in-house rather than outsource everything to the cloud.

"We've got some incredibly good infrastructure guys who've been with us for years," said Stanley. "One argued that he could've built our infrastructure cheaper in-house than what we'd spent on cloud. Maybe he's right. You could throw money at VMware or NetApp and do it all yourself.

"But AWS [Amazon Web Services] is spending billions to make my life easier every year and I can't compete with that. My IT team can't build a different version of Docker that makes my life easier. You cannot keep up with the investment that these cloud companies are making to keep things moving forward," he argued.

Earlier on in the session, Stanley argued that development managers now need to understand how to control costs.

Speaking on the same panel, Simon Hazlitt (above), co-founder of financial services firm Majedie Asset Management, echoed Stanley's argument, and added that IT needs to focus on supporting the business and not worry about the physical location of servers.

"I agree that cloud is improving all the time. But it's also worth getting back to first principles. IT people in business only exist because they're servicing a need, and that need is the provision of information. It's not to manage databases, or build apps, that's secondary. It's about serving people who generate revenue by giving them the information they need to do their jobs," said Hazlitt.

He also discussed security, a common business concern when considering hosting sensitive data outside the business.

"My old IT colleagues used to say how do you trust the cloud? But the business needs to trust external people anyway. And I get far more from Salesforce about the security of my data than I ever got from my internal CRM team," said Hazlitt.

He was also critical of IT's development and procurement cycle, arguing that often IT doesn't sufficiently understand underlying business needs.

"The business needs information to survive and needs to mutate and move quickly. If IT were in charge of the procurement of stationary, you'd ask for a red pen, but what's really important is what you write. If IT were responsible, they would be proud of measuring a user's index finger and six months later coming up with a £1m pen, and by then the user's forgotten why he needed it," he said.