Cloud Healing: The diagnosis may be killing the patient

Blogger Jessica Scarpati made the observation that we don’t argue about what is CRM or what is a router, but the industry cannot agree on virtual desktop vocabulary or cloud computing. Her entry titled, “Three meetings to explain cloud to customers. Yes, it’s that bad.”  hints at some of the marchitecture from providers creates frustration in the enterprise and fails to reconcile definitions.  

The Cloud & Technology Transformation Alliance published the survey that found that it takes the average provider three meetings to explain cloud computing to a customer. While cloud was intended to abstract the solution from the underlying hardware and software, have cloud providers found a new way to complicate things? As an industry full of standards and tech-savvy individuals, we’ve instead been a bit too innovative in ‘cloud speak’, making it difficult to diagnose our clients or let them self-diagnose.    

Dell has a point of view that is simple and jargon-free. Cloud is a simple concept and not a technology, but instead a seismic shift in how IT is delivered. Many see cloud computing as a logical progression but it also reverses 40+ years of IT perspectives, processes and procedures. Of course, each organization is attempting to align their unique cloud vision, existing infrastructure and business goals, against a provider(s) offering.  

While we cannot speak for all providers, we have talked with our clients and analysts on this topic and prefer to use NIST.GOV for its definitions. Check out my colleague Stephen Spector's blog where he provides fundamentals of various cloud services and the benefits.    

I don’t perceive IT as poorly informed in the benefits of cloud, but maybe overwhelmed with ‘cloud-washing.’ Could it also be that many IT departments also need more time to re-frame their strategy from the ‘technology’ to the ‘service?’  Or are the IT departments saddled with the realities of the budgets, politics, and infrastructure of what they have today?

Disclaimer: Dell is not a member of the Cloud & Technology Transformation Alliance

About the Author: Matthew Mikell