The Two Sides of Cloud Computing

By Allison Boccamazzo, TMCnet Web Editor

While many cloud vendors have turned to the safe and sure approach of separate spindles and virtual servers, Oracle (News - Alert) has chosen to take the road less traveled by reintroducing its new cloud/social constellation last week, according to a blog by Denis Pombriant, managing principle of the Beagle Research Group, a CRM market research firm and consultancy.

While this is the road less traveled, it is traveled nonetheless, and other companies have adapted this unique strategy as well. Salesforce, for example, also follows a conventional triple-tell approach; tell your audience/customer what you’re going to say, say it, and then reiterate what you said. As this news was greeted with skepticism in some quarters, it led many to perceive the new cloud establishment, as Pombriant coins it, a “legacy to cloud hybridization.” He goes on to offer some interesting points:

• “The Obligatory Cloud Offering”: While almost every major legacy software house has adopted cloud messaging technology, they are really only doing so to assure their customers that they have been taken to the “promise land;” a place customers are obligated to go, making it appear more like a fantasy land in CandyLand than a secure solution. Pombriant makes it clear that moving to a new location doesn’t necessarily change anything. Sure, you might see some cost savings from outsourcing IT management functions, but in the end it could prohibit individuals from concentrating on the business as a whole.
• Going back to the Basics: The largest concern or point of debate regarding transitioning to the cloud has been the question of where the data resides, and more importantly, who has access to it. Many people have a legitimate concern about data leaking out of the database and materializing - and with good reason – as this can open a whole new can of worms. Some chuckle at this, wondering how far we’ve actually come to create such high technology and then be afraid to even use it. This debate over data security has led Pombriant to offer up the idea of multitenancy, with one of the first examples being banking – which worked brilliantly for centuries even without computers by consisting of a system of passwords and statements designed to keep money separate and protected. This means that virtual sharing could be completely transformed with banking.
• As mentioned before, many vendors have stuck to the safe and sound approach of separate spindles and virtual servers, which in actuality should be collective and multi-tenant. By doing this, they are inevitably putting a potentially more successful approach on the backburner, one that made people like the Rothschilds rich. A shift in awareness is necessary to address this pertinent issue.

It is extremely interesting to see how Oracle – a company which so much of true cloud computing rests – has chosen to go such a distinctly different way when it comes to its enterprise customers. In Pombriant’s opinion, it is an unfortunate choice which will prove to “be obsolete in 10 years, at which point the whole industry will be at roughly the same point it is today.” Of course, this is just one of the many kinds of solutions existing today.

Who knows what will surface in the industry next?