Cloud Computing Success Requires Uniform Definition

Define cloud computing. Go ahead. Do it.

Now turn to the person next to you. Ask them to define it. That definition is a lot different than yours, isn’t it?

One problem solution providers face as they dig in and start selling – or start to investigate selling -- the cloud computing vision is the absence of a clear definition of what the heck cloud computing is exactly. And the definition you get depends on who you ask.

It might seem fundamental, even elementary, but as the hype continues to grow around cloud computing, it makes sense for VARs to find a single definition and stick with it.

’The lack of clear definitions of the ’cloud’ confuses both providers and customers and makes providing good solutions difficult, just because of the language,’ said James Clegg, president of Trusted Consulting Group Inc., an Englewood, Colo.-based MSP.

Patrick Ciccarelli, president and CEO of San Francisco-based Varsity Technologies, agreed.

’The general sense is: Let’s get in agreement in what we define as the cloud,’ he said.

But that’s the rub. Defining the cloud isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Is the cloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)? Is it Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)? Is it Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)? Is it all three? What about Business Process-as-a-Service (BPaaS)? Is that part of it too?

These are questions VARs struggle with day in day out as they try to tap into the new revenue streams and market opportunities presented by cloud computing.

’Understanding of the subsections is important for the channel,’ Ciccarelli said, adding that BPaaS, which currently isn’t on too many radar screens, could pose to be the holy grail of owning the relationship with the client as the cloud continues to proliferate.

A true cloud computing solution must contain elements of SaaS, IaaS and PaaS, said John Ross, CTO, of GreenPages, a Kittery, Maine, solution provider.

’I can have this conversation three times with three customers in one day and each will have a different definition,’ Ross said. Ross likened the cloud to utility computing. When broken down into its simplest terms, he said the cloud should work like this: ’You walk up and turn the lights on. You don’t know where the electricity comes from; you just know it comes from somewhere. With cloud computing it’s the same principle; you can access applications when and where you want and they run like that.’

Renowned analyst and research firm Gartner Inc.’s definition is the go-to in the market for most companies and vendors. Boiled down, Gartner defines the cloud as a service you buy that is delivered over the Internet to any device. It’s based on a pay-per-use model, is scalable, dynamic and multitenant. Or, more simply, it’s ’a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT capabilities are provided as a service to multiple customers using Internet technologies.’

Gartner’s definition seems to jibe with what the industry has seen, yet other definitions deviate.

NEXT: Cloud Characteristics, Service Models And Deployment Models

For example, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as ’a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.’

The NIST’s two-page definition of the cloud notes that the essential characteristics are on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and measured service; the three service models are SaaS, PaaS and IaaS; and the four deployment models are private, community, public or hybrid.

Chris Pyle, CEO and President of Champion Solutions Group, Boca Raton, Fla., which late last year launched a cloud-focused practice, distills the definition of the cloud further as: ’Using the Internet to deliver compute capacity on demand.’

Narrow or broad definitions mean that some elements that may not have been considered cloud computing solutions now are, further confusing the meaning. Or, as Oracle CEO Larry Ellison once put it, cloud computing is ’everything we already do.’

’Some solution providers are offering cloud services and don’t know it,’ Varsity’s Ciccarelli said.

Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a Xerox-owned business process and IT services firm, is one organization that has been ’doing cloud computing a lot longer than the term cloud computing has existed,’ said Chris Leach, Chief Information Security Officer for ACS.

Leach said the most direct way to describe the cloud to clients is to liken it to a Microsoft Exchange Server hosted elsewhere, say Lexington, Ken., that is used in Dallas. ’I don’t know where the device is, nor do I care,’ he said.

’We’ve been doing bits and pieces of this forever,’ said Tim Shea, CEO of Alpha NetSolutions Inc., a Marlborough, Mass.-based MSP, adding that the new wrinkle is that the cloud is ’about the business model, not about the technology’ and must be pay-as-you-go and not require a massive initial investment.

The key, solution providers said, is to transform into an on-demand provider and offer pay-by-the-drink service options, which changes the licensing and software paradigm, but once it’s relayed to clients it’s easily understandable.

Regardless of how you define it, all of the cloud computing definitions in the world aren’t as valuable as a methodology to selling into the cloud.

’Most every business can utilize some aspect of cloud-based services, but most clients have unclear or unrealistic expectations of what those services can do,’ Clegg said, adding that recent research has helped him define what is included in cloud services, but ’stopped short of giving recommendations on how we can communicate clearly about the various services and configurations.’

Clegg continued: ’As an MSP, a great deal of our offerings can be considered cloud .... There is so much variety in what can be considered cloud that the discussion with clients and potential clients often gets bogged down in defining what we are talking about.’

NEXT: Be Wary Of 'Cloud-Washing'

And getting bogged down in defining the cloud can affect how a solution provider shapes a client’s cloud strategy, said Eric Berridge, co-founder of Bluewolf, a New York City cloud solution provider.

’It’s easy to draw in a picture, but it’s difficult to articulate in words,’ Berridge said, noting that Bluewolf defines the cloud as a service that is accessible 24-by-7 from any device that shares a common technology infrastructure with every other user of that system. Berridge added that if the solution is not multi-tenant, it’s not true cloud, it’s software hosted by someone else.

’For larger consulting firms, this stuff is driving them crazy,’ Berridge said, adding that cloud computing changes the implementation dynamic by shortening the life of a project. Where past implementations would take one to four years and focus heavily on technology and process, with a little bit of focus on change management, cloud computing reduces the project duration to one to six months and focuses mainly on change management and processes with only a little attention paid to the technology.

Further creating headaches for solution providers is the vendor landscape, where every vendor wants to call its product a cloud solution to capture some of the market hype – a practice that has come to be known as ’cloud-washing.’

’The biggest barrier to cloud innovation is cloud-washing by vendors and IT,’ Tiffani Bova, Gartner vice president of research for worldwide indirect channel programs and sales strategies, said during a recent presentation.

’Anyone can slap the cloud label on whatever their product is to get on the bandwagon,’ James Damoulakis, CTO of Framingham, Mass.-based GlassHouse Technologies has said.

Like others, Damoulakis said the cloud is a service delivery model where services can be offered at different levels: the application level, via SaaS; the middle-ware level, via PaaS; and the infrastructure level, via IaaS. ’In a way they are all variants of cloud computing,’ he said. And the infrastructure level includes servers and storage and incorporates elements of grid and utility computing.

GlassHouse’s definition of cloud computing relies on a convergence of approaches. Essentially, GlassHouse said the cloud represents the convergence of virtualization, distributed computing and the utility service model.

As the cloud continues to take hold, solution providers hope to see varying definitions gel.

’We’re actually starting to come to a little bit of a consensus,’ said Ryan Nichols, head of cloud sourcing and cloud strategy for San Mateo, Calif.-based cloud solution provider Appirio. Nichols said the market is in agreement that the cloud encompasses, but is not strictly limited to, SaaS, IaaS or PaaS.

Despite how it’s defined, solution providers are at an integral crossroads where they have to either jump into the growing cloud market or risk being left behind. Diving in requires re-evaluating pricing models, commission payments and licensing.

’Eventually you have to stick your finger into the wind said say, ’Let’s try this,’’ ACS’s Leach said. ’There’s a learning curve, but as this goes on and we get used to the new model we can adjust.’