Cloud-Spreading All The Way

Inspite of all major players getting their hands into it, Cloud seems to be
the buzz word for all. Every technology has early adopters, its followers and
the wait and watch approach players. Same is the case with cloud too. Many
organizations are already using cloud in multiple ways like for e-mail through
service providers, for hosting servers/applications in datacenters, for CRM with
Salesforce, for on demand ERP, etc.

Private cloud has been in vogue at many large enterprises for some time now.
Progress made in virtualization, coupled with recent global economic challenges,
which resulted in dramatic change in IT budgets and expectation from IT
investments are driving cloud computing in an orchestrated way across software,
platform and infrastructure options. S Sriram, CEO, iValue InfoSolutions said,
"There are still some gray areas on data privacy and security front. The
compelling value proposition will ensure long-term success and adoption of cloud
across small, medium and large enterprises along with government, thanks to its
various governance drives."

Measures

Cloud vendors are collaborating with VADs and partners to sell their
offering. There are aggregating offerings which are delivered through
Telco/datacenter. Vendors use partners to generate leads. PoC for a week, strong
SLA and aggressive opex pricing are generating huge interest in SMB and
corporate space. Sriram giving its reason commented, "Partners and VADs migrate
some of the traditional customers during renewal to cloud model. Currently we
are seeing huge interest and demand. Usually data security issue hinders end
customers. If there is an assurance on data security and if end customers
realize the advantages, then this will generate a lot of demand."

Sunil Chavan, Director-Software Group and Cloud Solutions, Hitachi Data
Systems, Asia Pacific said, "Hitachi's key focus is on data security. We ensure
that end customers are aware of data security and also lay emphasis which boosts
their confidence."

Majority of the current security design and deployment were done when
virtualization was not in vogue. Now applications can be moved across physical
servers, networks and geographies. There are multiple applications in each
physical server and each requires different type of security needs. Also there
is a mix and match of private cloud, public cloud and on delivering IT for
medium and large enterprises. This leads to lot of questions being raised on
compliance, data privacy and security front. The new environment calls for
re-look and redesign of security/storage and manageability with a totally new
perspective to take advantage of the cloud benefits in a safe and secure way
along with compliance.

Limitations

The background and brand of the vendor will make a lot of difference.
Shedding light on limitations Sriram said, "Customer might prefer to work with
providers within the country due to latency and legal issues. SLA along with
assurance on data privacy and security will be the key requirement." Opex
costing should make business sense as compared to capex with management
overheads for the model to take off. Management of custom requirements specific
to each customer will make or break cloud service provider. Dependency is high
on cloud vendor and hence customer needs assurance and reassurance on
availability and security.

Marking cloud as one form of business model Chavan said, "It will take few
years to change the perception. Hitachi will support its partners in cloud
activities. We are asking our partners and customers to take the journey with
us. We also tell them how the pay-per- use model works. Data security in cloud
is emerging but it will continue to have issues. Any business model is
susceptible to fraudulent activities. Inspite of the acceptance taking time, lot
of companies are supporting this business model. It is a fluid world on cloud
but there are things which need to be changed around it. HDS has changed its
business approach by having cloud ready activities. We believe cloud business
model is next big thing."

Regulations

Majority of cloud service providers have invested in huge capacity and the
two years of global economic slowdown has upset their RoI plans. Due to this
factor along with privacy, security and compliance challenges, this market will
be a buyer's market and not seller's market for some time. Hence regulations by
cloud operators may not be feasible till market matures. Sriram citing another
challenge said, "The customer has to manage investments made on server, storage,
networking and security which may become redundant with a cloud model. Many IT
teams feel insecure towards the transition in to cloud model as they believe
their role getting marginalized within the organization. But it is actually an
opportunity for a CXO to focus on ensuring IT aligns and drives business rather
than spending most of their time and money on maintaining the IT
infrastructure."

Talking about channel strategy Chavan said, "We generally look at public
working closely with global SI partners and key channel partners. What we are
trying to do is to give comfort and confidence. Efforts are being put in to
bring partners to cloud. We are having a joint partnership with our partners
where we will help them with the go-to-market strategy and bring end customers
to cloud. We feel it is our responsibility to help the entire ecosystem to
grow."

Hitachi is closely working with Wipro, HCL and key solution providers.
Recently the company had associated with Sify and has changed its outlook.
Chavan said, "We want selected key partners who are serious and want to work
restrictively. Hitachi is also planning to work with telco and strong SI in the
country.

Latest offerings

Hitachi is working on cloud strategy for both public and private segments.
The company had announced a whole lot of initiatives last October. Chavan
quoted, "Our plan is not to come up with cloud services but the whole cloud
ready infrastructure. We are targeting both service providers and telcos."
Sometime back Hitachi had announced a unified single framework, which is
flexible to use for a telco or an enterprise user. Commenting on a recent
project Chavan said, "Telco players also deal with sensitive data. We have plans
to launch telco ready cloud solutions. Hitachi is coming up with offerings to
SME and mid size markets. We are coming up with specific cloud offerings."

Talking about iValue InfoSolutions, Sriram said, "iValue already works
closely with datacenter providers and enterprises with private cloud strategy
and solutions. We already see a trend where our existing vendors are offering
their products through cloud model also."

Revathi Raghavan

revathir@cybermedia.co.in