Adopt the Cloud, Kill Your IT Career 241
snydeq writes "IT professionals jumping into the cloud with both feet beware: It's irresponsible to think that just because you push a problem outside your office, it ceases to be your problem. It's not just the possibility of empty promises and integration issues that dog the cloud decision; it's also the upgrade to the new devil, the one you don't know. You might be eager to relinquish responsibility of a cranky infrastructure component and push the headaches to a cloud vendor, but in reality you aren't doing that at all. Instead, you're adding another avenue for the blame to follow. The end result of a catastrophic failure or data loss event is exactly the same whether you own the service or contract it out.'"
Re:It depends on what you use the cloud for. (Score:4, Interesting)
You save the hassles of maintaining a file server, daily backups, etc. Also gives more features as in the ability of sharing some docs with third parties for example.
Of course when the Feds seize the server because some users have been sharing their music and movies with third parties, you're screwed.
But it is Easier! (Score:5, Interesting)
Moving to the cloud is easier, which is why we keep considering it. It is easier to off load the work onto some cloud operator who is supposed to do it better and possibly cheaper, or at least it LOOKS easier. No more dealing with backup tapes, No more dealing with software licenses and the like, just pay your vendor of choice copy all your data onto the cloud and start tossing hardware and the people that managed it out the door.
Problem here is that doing this job right, on a budget, and on time is FAR from easy. Plus, it is going to be very difficult to verify that your vendor is actually doing the job correctly, considering that the hardware isn't accessible, being located in some server room some distance away. Who knows if they actually do backups of anything, much less actually do off site storage of recovery media. My guess is that as competition in this area heats up, prices will fall with quality falling too. Costs will be trimmed by eliminating skilled labor and without skilled labor the whole house of cards will fall.
Seems to me that the cloud may be a short term gain for most, but in the long run, dumping your infrastructure and the people that go with it is going to bite you eventually, unless the business is very small.
Finally, the biggest messes I've had to clean up had very little to do with a hardware failure or some loss of data. The worst messes I've seen where caused by some administrative error.... Replacing the wrong disk in the RAID, causing the total data loss or not thinking though a command before hitting enter. I don't see how being on a cloud will fix this kind of thing.
Re:So much for definitions... (Score:5, Interesting)
Cloud can have defined scope. Its a network philosophy, like any other.
Nope. The term "cloud" was coined over a decade ago when using diagrams to display network topology. The cloud was a stencil or icon that represented the Internet or a group of unknown hardware that was managed by someone else.
It's like taking the term "broadband" whose original meaning was the ability to perform frequency multiplexing, whereas now it supposedly means high speed Internet access. The two definitions for broadband have absolutely nothing in common.
Re:I.T. curse (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course not. However, it's not my fault because my boss bought a shit cell phone that can't sink up with whatever before talking to me about it. By the very same (lack of) logic it is going to be my fault when the "cloud" explodes and goes down for three days. Many people are just not knowledgeable enough to understand where one sphere of influence begins and another ends. "
I hear that. I've had several executives ask me if I could reset their AOL password. :-/
Re:I.T. curse (Score:5, Interesting)
I've never had a big problem with that for the (very few) services we do outsource.
"Salesforce is really slow!" *
"Hold... I've checked everything on our end, from your workstation out, and we're 100%. It's Salesforce."
"Those fuckers."
The real trick is in keeping an eye on how often you're actually hearing things like that and how often it's the outside provider's fault. Because, believe me, your coworkers would be doing the same for your internally hosted solution.
* Random example I get pretty rarely. We haven't had SF go down outside of scheduled maintenance in the last four years.
Re:another... (Score:4, Interesting)
Couldn't find the "mashup" on dilberts site, but still good.