Sometimes you just need to recognize that others do things far better than yourself. Explaining the cloud in simple pictures for example. The few words and pictures presented by Andy Harjanto are revealing, but still allow room for personal views about the subject.
That might be a deviation of mine but first slide is already significant, supposing the IT manager is overrun. But by who is he trampled? Could be the business demanding for more IT but also the sales guy telling half of the story in this presentation.
Buy or rent
Let's start with the analogy used to explain the concept of Cloud Computing by using the comparison of buying or renting a house. Renting has definitely some advantages such as lower investment and more flexibility. But I hope that the business will not get the idea that they get a palace for the price of a single room apartment.
And even cost of gardener, cleaner and painter are shared, there is still a charge for service. This service usually includes the maintenance of the infrastructure but the applications often fall outside. In other words you can rent the house but are still responsible for the furniture to make it livable. Of course you can rent a furnished apartment but whether the chairs and benches are comfortably depends on what you're used at home.
The furniture
When we ignore the populair common services that can be tapped from the cloud almost freely, the challenge is in the business applications. These often tend to be adapted to local market and laws, like software for ERP, HRM and Payroll. Most of these are not designed for cloud computing limiting the number of our choices.
Good thing is that by progressive consumerization of IT, the boundaries between business and consumers are blurring. So the walls are no longer thick as medieval castles and surrounded by a deep moat. That opens the path to outsource part of the non-critical services. But do you feel comfortable handing over the keys of the house to strangers?
Business on hold
Weakest link with Cloud Computing is usually access to the data from the location where users are located. The data can be replicated twice or even more between the well-connected data centers, but is useless if it is outside your reach. That is perhaps surmountable for the applications that support the business but is lethal for critical applications.
It's quite an understatement to say Cloud Computing isn't mature yet and we'll all feel the growing pain. The fact Internet is utilized for globalization but international law is still lame could cause surprises. Unnoticed laws can be violated, or under pressure from governments access to your data may be denied. Who will be blamed that business has been stopped pending access?
Summarized
The presentation is definitely worth watching to explain technology simply and recognizable. But my two cents comment is to keep in mind it's telling half the story. So if you don't want to be that guy at the ground make sure you fill the gaps.
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