The cloud that surrounds the cloud

CIO - Many new technologies have emerged in the world of IT but none is more confused and misunderstood than cloud computing. Here is another new technology paradigm that is crying out for a set of common standard definitions and a global consensus of understanding.

Cloud computing represents perhaps the greatest fundamental shift in how we consume IT that you may see in your career and if you are a CIO who wants to survive, you need to be on the right side of the "I get it" ledger.

I was discussing cloud computing at a recent function with a valued customer of the firm who also happens to be a venture capitalist investing in IT companies developing software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. I commented that the firm was "going to the cloud".

Without hesitation the client responded that if his own investment bank "went to the cloud" he would close his accounts and move his money and his information elsewhere!

Of course I immediately realised my gaffe -- that we were, in fact, talking about different 'clouds'. I quickly explained I was referring to a secure and private cloud service, which he was quite relieved to hear.

But his initial response to my somewhat ambiguous statement provides some interesting insights; firstly, that consumers are just as sensitive about the security of their information as they are about the security of their money. Secondly, any discussion on cloud computing invariably touches people's fundamental concerns about security and privacy. And finally, there is much confusion and misunderstanding around what it means when someone uses the term "going to the cloud".

The regulators of the banks were so concerned with the security and privacy issues of cloud computing that they moved to restrict banks from sending customer data off-shore. This will influence the way that the banks play out their cloud strategies but it will certainly not stop them from adopting a cloud strategy -- and quite aggressively, it would seem.

Last month, we heard the group executive of enterprise services and CIO of the CBA Bank, Michael Harte, speak about the bank's push to cloud computing and how it will help the bank reduce much of the 50-80 per cent of its in-house infrastructure spend. He is also reported as saying that the security and privacy concerns are "actually the most easily fixed". The most telling insights about his resolve to push the bank into a cloud strategy came with these comments: "We're saying that we will never buy another data centre. We will never buy another rack or server or storage device or network device again" and also: "I will never implement an internal solution for a common problem that I could procure on subscription across the Web."