I would love to be dis-intermediated, but everytime I've tried committing to "cloud" technology (and other innovations) I've loved it and the people I work with have hated it. Here's a list of things people don't get:
1. Cloud-based backup. It's insecure, bound to be hacked - never mind the encryption, teh haxxors can get around that stuff! So we're back to tapes and DVDs before you know it.
2. Virtual machines, but only if I make the mistake of telling them. It gives some people the willies for the same reason as (1) above, plus the supposed problems of a "shared" server. Also, if a server is outside our firewall they think it's less secure.
3. Google mail. They prefer Exchange for reasons which remain a mystery to me. I hate Exchange, love Google Mail and everything that comes with it. Even using Gmail via Outlook is mysteriously deficient for my colleagues.
4. Google Docs. Being able to collaborate on-line is not a very big benefit. The familiarity of MS Office is.
Things which do work:
1. iPads. This is the machine which will put me, an IT tech, out of work. Hasten the day.
2. Dropbox. Simple paradigm and works with the iPad.
3. All the clunky, difficult-to-manage, badly-designed software they've been using for years and have come to love in all their ugliness. It makes me weep.
The thing which will change this is the arrival of younger, more IT-literate people in the workplace. I have no problems at all with the under-30s; all the problems in the world with people older than that (not all of them but enough to be a permanent drag on progress). The simple fact is that these people will even shy away from something as superb as MailChimp's or Google's admin interfaces: too many buttons! They always get me to do it for them, and I will have a job in IT for as long as I want it.
As to 1: it is in many ways insecure (though bound to be hacked might be a bit much.) While dropbox isn't technically a cloud based backup, it can be used that way and there was a period where a glitch left it totally exposed for about four hours ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_(service)#Reception ). I actually love cloud based backup, but I encrypt my files before I send them and I am dealing with just my own personal data. A company with data they must legally protect would need to be wary.
As to 3: Personally, I love gmail. But from a corporate perspective, you can still exert more control over exchange. This can be significant, especially for highly regulated businesses that need to worry about frequent e-discovery and may perhaps wish to take steps to limit what is sent.
Cloud and IT are not mutually exclusive. The roles they provide are so different I can't at all see why anyone bothers to makes this apples and oranges argument.
I find it interesting that nobody's seems to recognize the primary problem with relying on cloud services - putting the entire business in the hands of your ISP. You can get redundant pipes, but then you're looking at the beginning of way more overhead than the cloud DB sales team wants you to know about.
At my office if the WAN pipe goes down, I know production will still be happening and almost all internal processes will be unaffected. These cloud services will probably soon replace IT for small businesses that in reality don't actually rely on software, but for major businesses where severe downtime = doom the only option is locally hosted services.
Frankly I think this along with the rest the "end of IT" bandwagon are spreading uninformed FUD... The industry will of course adapt to new technology, but IT is unique in its inability to ever be completely displaced by technology.
But, honestly, the same thing can also be said of electricity (or water/national defence/public transport/roads/sewerage/etc.).
You lean on your provider completely just to keep you running, and even a slight dip in their performance can take down your entire cluster, and completely ruin your day/calculation/work flow (outside of temporary UPS).
I think it's worth pointing out that we're facing the end of IT as we know it. I think that the only difference the "cloud revolution" will have is meaning that IT staff will work for some cloud provider rather than the companies themselves.
Perfect! This repairs the relationship because it means these people will be responsible for _producing value_. In most organizations this is a cost center designed (whether consciously or not) to produce friction in the name of safety.
There's probably a TSA-privatization analogy here somewhere.
I believe the gist of the article is about how IT has always been (and is always going to be) data-centric as opposed to solution-centric, and the guy who understands how to process one petabyte in one nanosecond has a better chance of surviving the consumerization of IT than the guy who does it in 5 nanoseconds (metaphorically speaking).
[+] [-] m0nty|14 years ago|reply
1. Cloud-based backup. It's insecure, bound to be hacked - never mind the encryption, teh haxxors can get around that stuff! So we're back to tapes and DVDs before you know it.
2. Virtual machines, but only if I make the mistake of telling them. It gives some people the willies for the same reason as (1) above, plus the supposed problems of a "shared" server. Also, if a server is outside our firewall they think it's less secure.
3. Google mail. They prefer Exchange for reasons which remain a mystery to me. I hate Exchange, love Google Mail and everything that comes with it. Even using Gmail via Outlook is mysteriously deficient for my colleagues.
4. Google Docs. Being able to collaborate on-line is not a very big benefit. The familiarity of MS Office is.
Things which do work:
1. iPads. This is the machine which will put me, an IT tech, out of work. Hasten the day.
2. Dropbox. Simple paradigm and works with the iPad.
3. All the clunky, difficult-to-manage, badly-designed software they've been using for years and have come to love in all their ugliness. It makes me weep.
The thing which will change this is the arrival of younger, more IT-literate people in the workplace. I have no problems at all with the under-30s; all the problems in the world with people older than that (not all of them but enough to be a permanent drag on progress). The simple fact is that these people will even shy away from something as superb as MailChimp's or Google's admin interfaces: too many buttons! They always get me to do it for them, and I will have a job in IT for as long as I want it.
[+] [-] timwiseman|13 years ago|reply
As to 3: Personally, I love gmail. But from a corporate perspective, you can still exert more control over exchange. This can be significant, especially for highly regulated businesses that need to worry about frequent e-discovery and may perhaps wish to take steps to limit what is sent.
[+] [-] advocate1|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] famousactress|14 years ago|reply
If I can help it I'd like to only work at companies which don't have:
- An IT Department
- An Exchange Server
- A sales team
In my experience, all have been a vicious waste of energy.
[+] [-] poppysan|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rnemo|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zerohp|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tammer|13 years ago|reply
At my office if the WAN pipe goes down, I know production will still be happening and almost all internal processes will be unaffected. These cloud services will probably soon replace IT for small businesses that in reality don't actually rely on software, but for major businesses where severe downtime = doom the only option is locally hosted services.
Frankly I think this along with the rest the "end of IT" bandwagon are spreading uninformed FUD... The industry will of course adapt to new technology, but IT is unique in its inability to ever be completely displaced by technology.
[+] [-] confluence|13 years ago|reply
But, honestly, the same thing can also be said of electricity (or water/national defence/public transport/roads/sewerage/etc.).
You lean on your provider completely just to keep you running, and even a slight dip in their performance can take down your entire cluster, and completely ruin your day/calculation/work flow (outside of temporary UPS).
Not everyone needs their own generator tammer :D.
[+] [-] j_baker|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] famousactress|14 years ago|reply
There's probably a TSA-privatization analogy here somewhere.
[+] [-] sleighboy|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stormental|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Toshio|14 years ago|reply