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Ephraim Baron

Ephraim is an IT veteran with over 20 years of experience in IT design and operations. He’s worked for companies large and small, including HP, Microsoft, and EMC as well as multiple startups. He’s passionate about technology and how to put it to productive use in solving business challenges.
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WhatMatrix Adds Cloud Management Platform Comparison

Posted by Ephraim Baron

2/16/16 12:13 AM

(reprinted from WhatMatrix blog https://www.whatmatrix.com/blog/?p=2157)

How Cloud Computing is Transforming IT

I’ve spent more than 20 years in IT operations.  In that time, computing technology has changed dramatically.  However, some things have remained relatively constant.  IT operations sits at a nexus of negativity.  From a business perspective, operations is overhead and its value is difficult to quantify/justify.  From a developer perspective, operational standards are needlessly strict and limiting.  From a user/requester perspective, IT is a maddening black box where requests go to die.

It’s no wonder that enterprises are embracing cloud computing with its promise of capacity-on-demand service and pay-as-you-go consumption.

Cloud is a compelling alternative to traditional IT.  Customers no longer have to accept ‘no’ for an answer.  If they don’t like what IT is telling them, they pull out a credit card and get what they want, when they want it.
More to the point, cloud computing is transforming the focus of IT discussions from technology to business.  As the enterprise world moves to embrace cloud computing, they follow a logical progression:

  • Does cloud have any benefits for my business?
  • How can I use cloud for strategic advantage?
  • How do I shift to a cloud-first approach?

If One is Good, More are Better

One of the key steps in most enterprises’ implementation of cloud is moving from a single cloud deployment to a multi-cloud strategy.  The primary benefit of a multi-cloud approach is the ability to choose the best cloud for each workload.  But as organizations work with multiple clouds, they are confronted with a confusing array of tools and management interfaces.

This is where cloud management platforms (CMPs) come in.  They serve as a common interface across multiple providers and technology stacks.  The CMP market has been around since around 2006 but have remained a niche market until recently.  As cloud consumption has taken off in the past 3 – 4 years, though, users have gained a clearer understanding of the benefits and challenges with each cloud service type and provider.  Recent expansion of the CMP market has mirrored this growth.  There are now many CMP providers, each with different specializations and approaches to multi-cloud management.  This is why WhatMatrix is adding a CMP category to aid in the evaluation and selection process.  You can find it at www.whatmatrix.com/comparison/Cloud-Management-Platforms.

By way of disclosure, I recently left the world of IT operations management to work for a CMP company.  In doing research on other companies the space, I had trouble finding a common basis for comparison.  Products are built differently, sold differently, and deployed differently.  I’d encountered similar challenges in the past when comparing virtualization platforms.  When I came upon WhatMatrix’s virtualization comparison, I found just what I was looking for.  It gave me the ability to directly compare multiple products and to drill down on the specific features that mattered most to me.  So I contacted the folks at WhatMatrix to ask if they had or planned to add a CMP category.  Although the category wasn’t actively being developed, they liked the idea and suggested I join them and contribute.

Since I work for one of the CMP vendors being evaluated, this might appear to be a conflict of interest.  CMP_vendorsIf my only interest was to promote my own product, I would simply create one of those ubiquitous charts showing all green checkmarks in my product’s column and all red x’s for each of my competitors.  That is decidedly NOT my goal.  Rather, I want a fair and objective comparison.  In return, I gain a deeper understanding of my own industry.  This also helps guide my company’s product direction and development priorities.  Additionally, WhatMatrix process are in place to ensure community curation and peer review.

While creating the CMP comparison, we’ve solicited input from all the vendors represented.  Nearly all have responded to one degree or another.  Still, some of the initial assessments are largely the result of my own research.  I trust that this will evolve over time and that each vendor will own and maintain their own evaluation.  This will both ensure fairness and help to advance the value of this comparison and of the CMP market.

Evaluation Methodology

When structuring the evaluation criteria, I began with high-level value propositions.  What problems do CMPs solve?  My list was drawn from discussions with analysts, personal experience with IT challenges, and a survey of solutions from industry players.  I sorted the criteria into the following categories:

  • General: How the product is structured, procured, installed, and managed
  • Multi-Cloud Support: The ability to manage a variety of clouds and technologies, from virtualization and private cloud to public cloud providers
  • IT Automation: Features that allow IT processes to be partially or completely automated
  • User Self-Service: Enablement of end-users to provision systems, environments, and/or application stacks themselves in near real-time based on templates set up and managed by IT
  • Chargeback/Cost Transparency: Increased visibility into what systems cost and how those cost can be actively managed
  • Governance & Security: Capabilities to ensure compliance and to safeguard information and operations
  • DevOps: Features that bridge the divide between developers and IT operations

And so it begins…

This blog marks the launch of the CMP category on WhatMatrix.  While I’m very pleased we have reached this milestone, I recognize that this is only the start.  The success of our efforts will be judged by the number of products compared and by the degree to which the comparison is seen as fair, relevant, accurate, and current.  To that end, I’m reaching out to representatives of CMP companies and to the wider WhatMatrix community to join in the CMP evaluation as category specialists.

So come on in.  The water’s fine.

jump

Ephraim Baron - Category Consultant

Quick Links

Contact Ephraim at: ephraim@whatmatrix.com

Contact WhatMatrix at: info@whatmatrix.com

Suggest a new product for the comparison

Spotted a mistake? Submit a change request ...

Credits (content/reviews):

- Virtualization.info / CloudComputing.info    virtinfo

- TheVirtualist.org 

- Viktor van den Berg - Viktorious.nl  viktorious-logo1

- ManageIQ Community    manageIQ2

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Topics: CMP

CloudBolt Now Available in Azure Marketplace

Posted by Ephraim Baron

1/13/16 8:00 AM

CloudBolt’s simply powerful cloud management platform has always been available as a virtual appliance.  We enable you to manage your virtualization, private cloud, and public cloud environments all in one place.  Because our customers work in multi-cloud environments, though, we’ve received multiple requests to run CloudBolt on-demand in the public cloud.  We listened, and we’re pleased to announce CloudBolt availability in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace as a pay-as-you-go application.

Microsoft Azure Cloud

To get started, go to https://azure.microsoft.com/marketplace and search for CloudBolt.  Click on the CloudBolt logo and you’ll be presented with two options:

CloudBolt Free 25 VM Pack is a Bring Your Own License version that’s free for non-production use for up to 25 virtual machines.  You pay only for your Azure instance time.  Otherwise, it’s free to use, forever.  Whether you’re just beginning with multi-cloud management or you’re testing a variety of CMP products, this is a great way to get started with CloudBolt.  All you have to do is pick your Azure instance, request a license by return email, and follow the quick installation guide.  You’ll be up and running in minutes.

CloudBolt 125 VM Pack is an on-demand version for managing up to 125 virtual machines.  You pay only while the instance is running, and usage is billed through your Azure account.  The license is built in.  You pay a low hourly rate along with your Azure usage.  Simply pick your Azure instance and follow the quick installation guide.  Before you know it, you’ll have powerful cloud management, IT automation, user self-service, and usage/chargeback reporting at your fingertips.

CloudBolt listing in Azure Marketplace

If you have more than 125 VMs – as most of our customers do – contact us at info@cloudbolt.io.  We can easily manage thousands of VMs across a wide range of virtualization and cloud environments from a single CloudBolt instance.  And we work with legacy, brownfield environments as well as new, greenfield deployments.  All of which makes CloudBolt the central console for management, security, reporting, and control of your entire IT infrastructure.

Cloud computing is all about ease of consumption.  By offering CloudBolt in Azure, we’re making it that much simpler to manage multiple clouds from the cloud.

CloudBolt = Flexibility + Control

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Topics: Partner, CMP, azure, CloudBolt

Alternate Realities for 2016

Posted by Ephraim Baron

12/18/15 8:10 PM

Predict-the-future1.jpgThis is the time of year when technical publications solicit prognostications.  We received multiple queries here at CloudBolt.  In reply, CloudBolt CEO Jon Mittelhauser and Marketing Director Ephraim Baron took turns gazing into the Mirror of Galadriel and reporting what they saw.  They offer their technology predictions for the coming year in two separate articles.

Ephraim’s forecasts were published by Virtual Strategy Magazine.

Jon’s prophecies can be found on VMblog.com.

So who’s cousin to Cassandra, and who’s a false prophet?  You decide.

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Topics: New Technology, Business Challenges

If It Isn’t Self-Service, It Isn’t a Cloud

Posted by Ephraim Baron

10/28/15 8:30 AM

A while back, I was working for a large storage company.  We had a marketing campaign called “Journey to the Cloud” where we advised enterprises about cloud computing – as we defined it.  For us, the cloud was all about storage.  Of course, for server vendors the cloud was all about servers.  Ditto for networks, services, or whatever else you were selling.  There was a lot of “cloud-washing” going on.  I knew we’d reached the Trough of Disillusionment when, as I got up to present to a prospect, they told me “if you have the word ‘cloud’ in your deck, you can leave now.”

Fast-forward five years, and cloud computing appears to have reached the Slope of Enlightenment.  By nearly all measures, cloud adoption has increased.  Ask any CIO about their cloud strategy, and they’ll give you a well-rehearsed answer about how they’re exploiting cloud to increase agility and drive partnership with the business.  Then ask, “How are you enabling user self-service?”  Typical responses start with blank stares or visible shudders, followed by “oh, we don’t do that!”  They may say “we’re only using private cloud”, or they may mention OpenStack or containers.  If so, you should point out “If it isn’t self-service, it isn’t really a cloud.”

Unless it provides self-service it is not a cloud

Defining Cloud Computing

When looking for a definition of cloud computing, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) version is widely cited as the authoritative source.  NIST lists five “essential characteristics” of cloud computing.  The operative word is ‘essential’; not suggested; not nice-to-have.  If a service doesn’t have all five, it’s not a cloud. These include:

  • Broad network access
  • Rapid elasticity
  • Measured service
  • Resource pooling
  • On-demand self-service

The NIST model of cloud computing

 For the last of these, on-demand self-service, the cloud test is simple.  If users can request systems or applications and get them right away – without directly involving IT – they are getting on-demand self-service.  If they have to submit a ticket and wait for an intermediary to review and fulfill their request, it’s not a cloud.

Working With You or Around You

At this point, you may be told “we don’t offer self-service because our users don’t understand IT.  They need our help.”  There was a time when that reasoning may have worked.  The C-I-‘no’ of the recent past had the power to rule by fiat and ban anything that wasn’t explicitly on the IT approved list.  Users had no choice.  But times have changed.  Now, users can simply create an account with a public cloud service, swipe their credit card, and get what they want, when they want it.

As a result, companies are seeing a marked increase in so-called shadow IT – pockets of information technology that exist and are managed by users rather than by formal IT groups.  And while this may cause wailing and gnashing of teeth by everyone from security, to finance, to IT operations, it’s nearly impossible to stop.  The genie is out of the bottle.

Rather than trying to prevent or shut down rogue users, IT must take a different approach.  They need to ask their users “how can we help you?” rather than “how can we stop you?” 

“Be the cloud, Danny”

IT needs to become a cloud services provider to their users

If you work in IT and want to stay relevant, you need to be as easy to work with as a cloud service provider.  Do that, and users won’t look for alternatives.  After all, they have their own jobs to do.

So how do you get started?  That’s where CloudBolt comes in.  We’re a cloud management platform that was designed from the start with the end-user in mind.  We enable systems administrators to establish standard configurations and to publish them to their users via an online service catalog.  Users get rapid access to capacity; IT maintains control and compliance.  Best of all, CloudBolt isn’t restricted to a single cloud vendor’s services and APIs.  We work with more than a dozen cloud providers, from private to public, as well as with a wide variety of configuration management and orchestration tools.  We even integrate with legacy, brownfield environments giving you a single place for managing existing as well as new deployments.

The CloudBolt Service Catalog is where end users get what they need

If simple and powerful cloud management sounds appealing, try it for yourself.  Just download the CloudBolt virtual appliance.  It’s free to use for lab environments.  Deployment and setup are fast and easy.  Before you know it, you’ll be providing real cloud services to your users.

“Inconceivable!” you say?  Think again.

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Topics: Cloud Management, Automation, IT Self Service

CloudBolt is Now Free for Lab Use

Posted by Ephraim Baron

10/15/15 12:42 AM

If you’re like most IT shops, you have a place for testing out new products, technologies, and applications.  You may call it your lab, your skunkworks, or your Area 51.  (If you have a different name, share it in a reply to this post.)  Your lab is where you separate truth from hype.  It’s where you make sure things work in your environment, on your equipment, with your team.  CloudBolt’s powerful and intuitive cloud management platform makes a great addition to your lab.  Keep reading to find out why.  Or to get started right away, just

Download the OVA

Gathering Clouds

Using multiple cloud providers is easy with CloudBoltPerhaps you’re just getting started with cloud computing, or maybe you’re testing out multiple clouds, public and private.  Either way, CloudBolt’s powerful and intuitive cloud management platform can help.  CloudBolt serves as a manager-of-managers to provide single-pane-of-glass visibility and control.  We integrate a wide range of virtualization, cloud, automation, and orchestration tools and technologies.

Our cloud management platform lets you test a variety of configurations on the back-end while providing a consistent end-user front-end.  This can be very handy for vendor bakeoffs.  For example, you can spin up an Apache Tomcat environment in your own data center as well as in a public cloud provider based in, say, Singapore and compare provisioning time, system performance, and user experience.

Because CloudBolt coordinates each cloud integration, you don’t have to keep up with each vendor’s terminology, APIs, and quirks.  You just set up the initial integration for each provider and then lather, rinse, and repeat.  Instead of becoming locked into a particular vendor’s offerings, you can select the best environment for each workload.  We even discover and integrate with your existing deployments, and we stay in sync regardless of whether you make changes using CloudBolt or through vendor-specific tools.

Free, as in Beer

CloudBolt is now free for lab use


CloudBolt is pleased to announce that our award winning cloud platform is now available for free for up to 25 VMs in non-production lab environments.  Why?  Because we’re confident in the value of our product.  We use it every day, and it enables us to be highly productive and cost-effective.  We believe it will do the same for you.

To get started, just go to our download page and click the link to 

Download the OVA

Then fill out the license request and we’ll email you a free license that never expires.  System prerequisites and installation instructions are available on our documentation site. When you've finished installing CloudBolt, follow the Getting Started Guide and you’ll be up and running in minutes.  Contact us if you need any assistance.  To jumpstart your CloudBolt deployment, schedule a demo and we’ll walk you through the features that matter most to you.

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Topics: Cloud Management, Licensing, CloudBolt

Network Transformation: Thinking Outside the Middlebox

Posted by Ephraim Baron

9/16/15 12:00 PM

Stuck in the Past

The original computers were relatively dumb, single-purpose machines.  Logic was hard-wired into the circuitry, and the devices were designed for a single task – arithmetic, decryption, tabulation, etc.  Today the idea of having to use separate devices for every application or task would seem ludicrous, yet that’s essentially how networks still operate.

Current networks consist primarily of boxes.  There are routers, and switches, and signaling equipment along with other “middleboxes”, specialized devices with specific functions.  Examples of middleboxes include firewalls, load balancers, proxies, intrusion detection systems, and WAN optimization appliances.  Each of these devices requires configuration and administration.  The result is complexity and inefficiency. 

Middleboxes are highly specialized devices that add complexityImagine a data pipeline of that passes through all these devices.  How many times must a packet be opened, inspected, and acted upon?  How many device operating systems and interfaces do systems administrators need to know/learn?  How many opportunities are there for misconfiguration or device failure?  What happens when rules on different boxes conflict?  Who can troubleshoot traffic that passes through all these devices?

Rewriting the Rules

The goal of Software Defined Networking (SDN) is to abstract network functions from dependency on hardware.  This, in turn, enables high-level programmability of the network.  In technical jargon, SDN involves separating the data plane (the devices directly involved in moving packets) from the control plane (the logic of how traffic gets from source to destination).  Rather than focusing on boxes, SDN starts with data flows, which are the building blocks of higher-level network logic and functionality.

In a software defined networking world, physical middleboxes become software programs.  This is known as Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), and it allows for functional abstraction along with a common management framework.  By virtualizing network functions in the control plane, network design can be policy-based rather than device-based.  In many ways this is analogous to other types of software development.  The developer writes code that specifies the input, output, and transformations.  Compilers and optimizers determine the most efficient machine instructions and execution logic to implement the code.

As alluded to above, networks built from boxes are complex and difficult to troubleshoot.  I’ll illustrate with an anecdote.  I used to work for a large software company that ran many online services.  Over time, our core routers became cluttered from several generations of configurations and access control lists (ACLs).  It got to the point where our network team had almost no idea which rules were still active.  Their answer – which is probably familiar to anyone who has managed a legacy network – was to sequentially turn rules off to see which applications broke.

Interconnecting multiple network devices can be messyBy contrast, SDN promises a global network view.  Functional complexity is managed at the network edge, while the core primarily focuses on moving packets.  As Jennifer Rexford, one of the pioneers in the field of SDN, sees it, “SDN allows for network-wide visibility and control, which we've never had before.”

From Theory to Practice

Assuming the ideas discussed up to this point are of interest to you, how do you get started?  The answer is “it depends”.  As with many technologies, what is and what is not SDN can be confusing.  Some companies define SDN as a way to automate and configure their physical switches and routers.  This is the approach many network hardware vendors have taken, and it makes sense in terms of their core competencies and existing customer base.  Cisco, for example, continues to add SDN capabilities to its Nexus line of switches.

Many software vendors, on the other hand, define SDN in terms of network virtualization.  With this approach, the goal is to provide an abstraction layer that essentially commoditizes the hardware components.  This follows the same path that server virtualization has taken.  Virtualization leader VMware’s acquisition of SDN pioneer Nicira in 2012 made sense within the context of their strategy to deliver the Software Defined Data Center (SDDC).  Within a year of the acquisition, VMware had combined elements of Nicira technology with its well-established network virtual switching to form its NSX product family

The addition of NSX to VMware’s vSphere product line means that users and administrators can create, modify, and administer networks as easily as they can manage virtual machines (VMs) – without adding a lot of expensive network gear.  The combination of VMware server virtualization and NSX network virtualization enables IT organizations to deliver services with the same agility and flexibility as the large public cloud providers.

CloudBolt is pleased to announce extensive integration of VMware NSX technology in our 5.2 product release.  CloudBolt enables enterprise IT to operate as a cloud service provider.  Our powerfully simple cloud management platform integrates on-premises resources with public clouds, automation scripting tools, and domain-specific technologies.  By delivering a responsive and agile alternative to shadow IT, CloudBolt gives users what they want, when they want it.

To learn more, contact us to schedule a demo.
Or if you prefer to jump right in,
Download CloudBolt

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Topics: Network Virtualization, SDN, VMware NSX, CloudBolt

From Subservient to IT Self Service

Posted by Ephraim Baron

8/26/15 2:30 PM

The first business computer, the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO), went into service in November 1951.  Access to computing used to be highly restrictedIt ran applications for a British tea and catering company.  In the decades that have followed, information technology (IT) has become an integral part of nearly every aspect of business.  Try to imagine work without computers, without devices, without ready access to information anytime, anywhere.  Computing is a constant and necessary part of our lives.  

So why is it that in so many corporate environments, core IT services are still requested and delivered through restrictive processes managed by technologists?  One answer is that's simply the way it's always been.  Like the wizard behind the curtain, users were shielded from the great an powerful force of computing.  Precedent, however, does not imply perfection.  If, as Stewart Brand observed in 1984, "information wants to be free", shouldn't information systems be readily accessible?

Another argument is that computing is comprised of expensive and highly complex systems that only a dedicated, highly trained staff can manage.  Technological changes like cloud computing are changing that, though.  The National Institute of standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as

“a model for enabling ubiquitous, 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.” 

Read that description a second time and compare it with traditional IT.  What a contrast!  Cloud is surely appealing to anyone frustrated with their central IT department.

The Specter of Shadow IT

Shadow IT strikes fear into corporate IT departmentsIT has long had a paternalistic attitude towards end users.  “They need us”, they say, or “we’re just keeping them safe.”  But unlike the child that’s eventually allowed to go off on their own, most IT departments won’t let go.  In response, many end users – developers, line of business owners, and the like – look for unsanctioned alternatives.  They create islands of “shadow IT” outside the visibility or control of their IT parents.  It can start innocently enough – perhaps they use an online file sharing service to get around size limits for email attachments.  But it doesn’t stop there.  They may start using personal email accounts for work-related activities.  Before you know it they’re in full rebellion.  They store source code in online repositories or download the company directory to Google docs. 

“I’ll have to be firmer with them”, reasons the CIO, or  “perhaps they’ll grow out of it.”

“You just don’t get it”, say the end users.  “I need to live my life, not yours!”

Handing Over the Keys

Self service IT enables users while maintaining control

The time has come for a different approach.  If IT aspires to be viewed as a business enabler rather than a cost center, they need to provide services in a cloud-like way.  While this may sound difficult or scary, it doesn’t have to be. 

Just as cloud computing is made up of services, an internal IT service catalog can present users with a variety of ready-to-order services.  On the back end, systems administrators need only to create initial templates and then set up mechanisms for instantiation.  From that point on, it’s lather-rinse-repeat. 

There are many benefits of user self-service.  Here are a few:

  • IT organizations have far greater visibility into the systems, software, and security for which they are ultimately responsible.
  • IT is able to establish and control systems standards.  This is far more appealing than having to either support or seek-out-and-destroy environments set up by others.
  • Overall IT costs, usage, and trends are clearer.
  • Self-service enables that most elusive of IT dreams, chargeback.
  • Companies have a far easier time passing compliance audits because they have greater control (and security teams can sleep at night).
  • Most importantly, users are more productive.  They spend their time doing what they were hired to do rather than setting up and managing unsanctioned services.

For companies ready to move to user self-service, there are many IT orchestration and management platforms to choose from.  They range from do-it-yourself tools to highly-structured professional services engagements from big consulting or enterprise software companies.  To decide what’s right for your organization, start by channeling your inner Stephen Covey and “begin with the end in mind”.  Identify your target users.  Define the services and user experience you want to offer.  List in clear, business-centric terms the benefits of self-service.  Establish tracking metrics to determine how well things are working, and measure the current baseline.

In the age of cloud computing, it’s increasingly difficult for IT departments to push back on user requests.  To stay relevant, IT needs to enable users to get what they need, when they need it.

CloudBolt enables user self-service to a wide variety of cloud and virtualization sources.  Our simple, intuitive user portal delivers business agility while maintaining control through approval workflow, usage quotas, and time-bound leases.  Costs are clearly indicated, making chargeback/showback/shameback simple.  Best of all, CloudBolt installs quickly.  You can be up and running in less than an hour, without the need for costly professional services.

To learn more, schedule a demo or download CloudBolt and try it for yourself.

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Topics: Self Service IT

You are not expected to understand this

Posted by Ephraim Baron

8/12/15 10:30 AM

I love the history of technology.  My favorite place in Silicon Valley is the Computer History Museum.  It’s a living timeline of computing technology, where each of us can find the point when we first joined the party.

It’s great to learn about technology pioneers – the geek elite.  Years ago I took a course on computer operating systems.  We were studying the evolution of UNIX, and we’d gotten to Lions’ Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, circa 1977.  (As an aside, the entire UNIX operating system at that time was less than 10,000 lines of code.  By 2011 the Linux kernel alone required 15 million lines and 37,000 files.)  As we studied the process scheduler section, we came to one of the great “nerdifacts” of computer programming, line 2238, a comment which reads:

* You are not expected to understand this.

Daunting technology

That one line perfectly expresses my joys and frustrations with computing.  The joy comes from the confirmation that computers can do amazingly clever things.  The frustration is from the dismissive way I’m reminded of my inferiority.  And I think that sums up how most people feel about technology.

“Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold.”

In the corporate world, end users have a love-hate relationship with their IT departments.  It’s true that they help us to do our jobs.  But rather than giving us what we need, when we need it, our IT folks seem to always be telling us why our requests cannot be fulfilled.  Throughout my career I’ve been on both sides of this conversation.  Early on, I was the requester/supplicant who’d make my pleas to IT for services or support, only to be told to go away and come back on a day that didn’t end in ‘y’.  

notYes

Later, I was the IT administrator, then manager.  In those roles I was the person saying ‘no’ – far more often than I wanted.  It wasn’t because I got perverse pleasure out of disappointing people.  That was just the way my function was structured, measured, and delivered.

Almost without exception, the two metrics that drove my every action in IT operations were cost and uptime.  Responsiveness and customer satisfaction were not within my charter.  Simply put, I got no attaboys for doing things quickly.  While this certainly annoyed my customers, they knew and I knew that they had no alternatives.

The Age of Outsourcing

Things began to change in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s (yeah, I go back a ways) when large companies decided to try throwing money at their IT problems to make them go away.  So began the age of IT outsourcing, when companies tried desperately to disown in-house computer operations.  Such services were “outside of our core competency”, they reasoned, and so were better performed by seasoned professionals from large companies with three-letter names like IBM, EDS, and CSC.

Outsourcing question

Fast-forward 25 years and we find the IT outsourcing (ITO) market in decline.  There are many reasons for this.  The most common are:

  • Actual savings are often far less than projected
  • Long-term contracts limit flexibility, particularly in a field that changes as constantly as IT
  • There is an inherent asymmetry of goals between service provider and service consumer
  • Considerable effort is required to manage and monitor contracts and SLA compliance
  • New technologies like cloud computing offer viable alternatives

Just as video killed the radio star, cloud computing is a fresher, sexier alternative to ITO for enterprises searching for the all-important “competitive advantage”.

Power to the People!

Cloud computing isn’t just new wine in old bottles; it’s a fundamental change in the way computing resources are made available and consumed.  Cloud computing focuses on user needs (the ‘what’) rather than underlying technology (the ‘how’).

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines five essential characteristics of cloud computing.  One of these is ‘On-demand self-service’.  Think about what that means.  For the end user, it means getting what we need, when we need it.  For business, it means costs that align with usage, for services that make sense.  And for IT, it means being able to say ‘yes’ for a change.NIST cloud model

For too long, we have been held captive by technology.  Cloud computing promises to free us from technology middlemen.  It enables us to consume services that we value.

At its core, cloud computing is technology made understandable.

CloudBolt is a cloud management platform that enables self-service IT.  It allows IT organizations to define ready-to-use systems and environments, and to put them in the hands of their users.  Isn’t that a welcome change?

Learn more about self-service IT

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Topics: Customer, Cloud, Services, Agility, IT Self Service, Self Service IT