cloud expo may 09 richard britton, cloud computing for smes
DESCRIPTION
Richard Britton - IT Director at Easynet Connect, ISP for SMEs in the UK - presentation at Cloud Expo london May 2009TRANSCRIPT
SMEs & Cloud ComputingRichard Britton
Themes for today…
Collaboration
Recession
Security
Standardisation
SMEs
Background
Me and my experiences…
IT Director at ISP Easynet Connect • Quality connectivity & internet access for small to medium size
businesses in the UK• We own our network with 6030km of fibre and last mile access to
over 70% of businesses in the UK• Second largest network in the UK and now with global reach• 1200 local exchanges all with SDSL (BT have 800)
Easynet Connect employs circa 200 staff, so also an SME! • Four sites, London, Somerset, Belfast, Portsmouth• Marketing, Sales, Product, Provisioning, Support, Finance, IT
Background in consultancy and business change
Implementing a programme of “Cloud” solutions to transform Easynet Connect’s systems
BUT FIRST
WHAT?
IS IN…
Lots of hype = lots of definitions…
(Source: economist.com Oct 2008)
A simple Cloud definition
There are three rough categories…
InfrastructureServers now subdivided into virtual machines; they are no longer location specific or persistent
Applications Software as a service; applications, web-based or not, are no longer come as a big chunk of software, they’re made up of a combination of electronic services
Periphery – the cloud meets the real world...The User Interfaces are changing because there is no software to install and specific best of breed services are consumed on the go
(Source: definition from economist.com Oct 2008)
I’m going to talk about…
InfrastructureA little bit
Applications Quite a bit
Periphery – the cloud meets the real world...I’ll touch on it
Easynet Connect & Cloud Computing…
SUPPORTSUPPORTSERVICE MANAGEMENT
SERVICE MANAGEMENT
SALES & MARKETING
SALES & MARKETING
Order Provisioning
Product Mgt AR & Billing
CustomerPortal
Partner Portal
Salesforce API
Cast Iron service bus
Replacing a legacy architecture…
SMEs & Cloud Computing - The story so far
SMEs have been using Cloud Computing for a decade…
At first…
And then we had…
But now we have…
Why Do SMEs use Cloud Computing?
Convenience
Why Do SMEs use Cloud Computing?
Value for Money
Why Do SMEs use Cloud Computing?
Simplicity
Why Do SMEs use Cloud Computing?
Trust
I’m going to talk about…
Cloud Themes
SMEs & Cloud Computing
Security: An opportunity or a threat?
What are the risks?• Public clouds are a target for hacking• Denial of service attacks have happened• Alleged cause of AWS outage in July 2008• But this could happen to your ‘private cloud’ hosting
provider…
What is the reality?• Most SMEs do not have a cohesive, holistic security policy
with dedicated resourcing – they cannot afford it• Most SMEs therefore accept a degree of risk unless they
are operating in a secure industry (FS, Defence etc)
SMEs & Cloud Computing
Security: An opportunity or a threat?
What is my experience?• Cloud security is a commercial issue before it is a technical
one, so check the contract• Cloud computing is Darwinian – if security breaches,
customers will leave. So they are in the security business… • Understand encryption implications & multi-tenant
handling of data• Look for Safe Harbour agreement to be in place if data is
leaving Europe• When you read the hype - consider what IT managers have
to gain from moving to a public cloud…
SMEs & Cloud Computing
Recession: An opportunity or a threat
What are the threats?• Customers are expecting the same for less (but maybe not so
much shouting for ‘more’ like before)• Staff cutbacks are leaving dangerous holes in the IT knowledge
base of organisations• Asking for budget for another server just doesn’t cut it…
What is the reality?• This is more than a cyclical change in the IT market; the recession
has become a catalyst for a new technology paradigm• Most major IT vendors are converging on the Cloud subscription
model• The Cloud USP has a critical role in this market; no capital outlay,
no infrastructure to scale and manage, control to incrementally decrease IT footprint as well as grow it
• Deployment lead times are reduced so projects are cheaper
SMEs & Cloud Computing
Recession: An opportunity or a threat
What is my experience?• The basic building blocks are there, so our deployment has
been faster• The capital outlay has been less than it would have been
historically; so the pay back in the business case is indeed faster
• Sizing of the solution is straightforward; it will scale as needed
• The recession is a chance to spring clean, a chance to build support for programme of IT renewal with long term efficiency in the Cloud
SMEs & Cloud Computing
Collaboration: So what is the opportunity?
The past• Vendors created their cloud offerings in isolation; Gmail,
MSN messenger…• Open source communities cooperated on ‘on premises’
solutions• Early Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture led to cross
enterprise programming interfaces• A rush took place to create interfaces into the vendor’s
Clouds• Amazon Web services; everything from virtual servers to
search engine optimisation made available through an API
SMEs & Cloud Computing
Collaboration: So what is the opportunity?
The present
• A second rush by smaller vendors to create add on solutions to primary vendors; the Salesforce Appexchange, Netsuite SuiteBundler
• Also cloud to cloud integration (LinkedIn to huddle.net)• Best of breed solutions now with much reduced integration costs –
ideal for SMEs• Projects are shared within communities – e.g. CastIron integration
projects that link business applications are shared between licensees
• Knowledge is being shared through communities such as twitter & facebook; have a look at the Salesforce.com service cloud…
• Jobs are being advertised and expertise shared on LinkedIn
SMEs & Cloud Computing
Standardisation: An opportunity AND a threat
The opportunity
• A ready made IT roadmap; everything has been considered security, scaling, consistency, performance & availability, version control, programming language
Things to watch
• Choosing a cloud is a decision point on the IT roadmap• The leading clouds all have different ‘flavours’;
– Google Apps is search optimised (python & big table)– Salesforce is Customer relationship orientated– Microsoft is versatile but it will continue the licensing
arrangements…– Amazon – low complexity and high volume
Things that a small business can do…
Get some free advertising on LinkedIn – set up a company profile & build your contact management database there
Stop using paid for conference calling solutions and do conference calls and instant messages on Skype
Ditch your exchange server and push your corporate email through Google’s GMail
Move your website to Amazon Web services and run it on a cheap low cost instance. (And convert it to Wordpress so that you can edit it yourself)
Start using Zoho instead of Microsoft Office if you have to buy a new license
Things that a medium size business can do…
Start investigating how you can move some of your business systems into the cloud – Saleforce, Netsuite, Right Now
Do an audit of your server room – do you have one server per employee?
If you pay for an expensive web analytics system; close it down and use Google analytics
Next time you think about hiring a programmer, investigate hiring a business analyst instead – programming is giving way to configuration of services. Check out http://www.geticeberg.com/
Find out what others are saying about your business on collaboration platforms like Twitter
SMEs & Cloud Computing
Conclusions
Maturation of Cloud solutions offered by Microsoft, Oracle and others will make the playing field clearer with experts emerging on transitioning into the cloud
SMEs will move standard solutions to the cloud and then focus on managing their own core competences; integrating both will deliver the full value chain
Public clouds will become more SME business orientated and less consumer orientated; venture capital has dried up and cloud services need to monetise, e.g. Skype for business
And finally...
None of what we’ve talked about will work for your business
Unless you have…
A fast, reliable, resilient, internet connection.
http://www.easynetconnect.net
SMEs & Cloud Computing
Any Questions?