FOCUS COMMENT
Issue 14, February/March
CLOUD DELIVERABLES FROM THE COMMERCIAL DATA CENTER SPACE
Only by understanding the application layer can suppliers provide the required value to customers says Ambrose McNevin
global phenomenon such as cloud computing is finding a practical way to apply it to business. How cloud computing is changing the business model of colocation
T companies and the
choices it offers end users with data center requirements are truly radical.
That could be a reason why a group like the Open Data Center Alliance has attracted some very recognizable names: BMW, Marriott Hotels, China Telecom and more recently Capgemini among others.
For ‘end users’ bombarded with messages about IAAS, CAAS, EAAS and many other types of AAS with ‘dynamic provisioning’, there is clearly a need for some kind of concerted approach to attempt to defi ne an outcome that separates fantasy from reality.
The ODCA is pitching itself as an end user organization. And it is. The only caveat being that such is the ubiquity of technology and the total reliance of every aspect of modern business on all things IT and communications related, that we are all end users and many of us are both end users and suppliers. (The telecoms fi rm and consultancy mentioned above being the perfect examples.)
But this shouldn’t be seen as a disadvantage for the data center industry. What the cloud has done is descend like a fog on what were once clearly demarcated roles across the data center, telecoms and IT industries.
There was a time when IT suppliers made things, wrapped services around them and sold them on to users. After a while this became very complex so suppliers said, ‘don’t you worry about it, outsource the whole operation to us an we’ll run it cheaper and better’. But users could only outsource once.
For commercial data center builders and operators this made no difference whatsoever. If you were a traditional colocation supplier, a wholesale data center supplier or a managed
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Today, and tomorrow, things could not be more different. Moving up the value stack is the only way a commercial data center operator can hope to compete in the cloud business.
OUTSOURCING
In some ways the colocation companies of today are like the outsourcing companies of the 1990s. On the plus side many own the infrastructure from which they will deliver their cloud services.
This is an advantage as they understand the power provision, mission critical aspect of uptime and the different layers of connectivity needed to deliver the services required. In analyst Gartner’s recent report Savvis, AT&T, Verizon, Rackspace and Terremark Worldwide were positioned in the top right of its ‘Magic Quadrant’ and were thus seen as leaders and visionaries in Cloud Infrastructure-as-a- Service and web hosting. Savvis has its suite of services called Symphony which provides services matched to the criticality of the application. Sungard Availability Services says its private cloud offering can host ‘whatever software and applications a business currently uses’ on its system.
Where they are not like the outsourcing companies of the 1990s – yet – is that they don’t have a reputation for employing consultants who understand business requirements and can devise an IT strategy which delivers a business goal. In short, these guys are very good at supplying the infrastructure but don’t have the understanding of what is happening at the application layer and so can’t cross the divide from cost cutting to the sunlit uplands of delivering business value.
The old view was that for every $2 spent on buying SAP’s software, $10 was spend on the consultancy to make it work. Those business
models are probably gone forever. But what is true is that a Cloud model is about the very separation of the application from the infrastructure. And this is where the expertise of the colocation suppliers resides. But it is those who understand what the application delivers who will be able to differentiate themselves in the market.
As one senior contact within a colocation provider which is playing in the Infrastructure- as-a-Service space said to me recently, nowadays the client has control. They (the customer) want us to host their application at a comparable cost to what we would previously charge had they commited to a contract of one, three or fi ve years. The difference being that today they want that long term rate and they want to be able to switch it off tomorrow.
The CEO of a large colocation provider recently told an investor conference that understanding the application layer was the future of his company. His customers and prospects are telling him ‘You have to help us understand how we can apply this application to our business and how it can be run effi ciently, effectively and dynamically’. Like in a cloud.
To deliver value to customers within cloud computing, the application layer is the space where today’s commercial data center operators need to play if they are to understand the Decision Strategies and IT Optimisation needs of their customers. ■
See more analysis see
www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus
he challenge presented by a
hosting provider, it was the person who was paying the bill that mattered and not which application was running in your data center. What the consultancies were promising to the end users was not a concern.
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