SMEs & Cloud ComputingRichard Britton

Themes for today…

Collaboration

Recession

Security

Standardisation

SMEs

Background

Me and my experiences…

IT Director at ISP Easynet Connect • Quality connectivity & internet access for small to medium size

businesses in the UK• We own our network with 6030km of fibre and last mile access to

over 70% of businesses in the UK• Second largest network in the UK and now with global reach• 1200 local exchanges all with SDSL (BT have 800)

Easynet Connect employs circa 200 staff, so also an SME! • Four sites, London, Somerset, Belfast, Portsmouth• Marketing, Sales, Product, Provisioning, Support, Finance, IT

Background in consultancy and business change

Implementing a programme of “Cloud” solutions to transform Easynet Connect’s systems

BUT FIRST

WHAT?

IS IN…

Lots of hype = lots of definitions…

(Source: economist.com Oct 2008)

A simple Cloud definition

There are three rough categories…

InfrastructureServers now subdivided into virtual machines; they are no longer location specific or persistent

Applications Software as a service; applications, web-based or not, are no longer come as a big chunk of software, they’re made up of a combination of electronic services

Periphery – the cloud meets the real world...The User Interfaces are changing because there is no software to install and specific best of breed services are consumed on the go

(Source: definition from economist.com Oct 2008)

I’m going to talk about…

InfrastructureA little bit

Applications Quite a bit

Periphery – the cloud meets the real world...I’ll touch on it

Easynet Connect & Cloud Computing…

SUPPORTSUPPORTSERVICE MANAGEMENT

SERVICE MANAGEMENT

SALES & MARKETING

SALES & MARKETING

Order Provisioning

Product Mgt AR & Billing

CustomerPortal

Partner Portal

Salesforce API

Cast Iron service bus

Replacing a legacy architecture…

SMEs & Cloud Computing - The story so far

SMEs have been using Cloud Computing for a decade…

At first…

And then we had…

But now we have…

Why Do SMEs use Cloud Computing?

Convenience

Why Do SMEs use Cloud Computing?

Value for Money

Why Do SMEs use Cloud Computing?

Simplicity

Why Do SMEs use Cloud Computing?

Trust

I’m going to talk about…

Cloud Themes

SMEs & Cloud Computing

Security: An opportunity or a threat?

What are the risks?• Public clouds are a target for hacking• Denial of service attacks have happened• Alleged cause of AWS outage in July 2008• But this could happen to your ‘private cloud’ hosting

provider…

What is the reality?• Most SMEs do not have a cohesive, holistic security policy

with dedicated resourcing – they cannot afford it• Most SMEs therefore accept a degree of risk unless they

are operating in a secure industry (FS, Defence etc)

SMEs & Cloud Computing

Security: An opportunity or a threat?

What is my experience?• Cloud security is a commercial issue before it is a technical

one, so check the contract• Cloud computing is Darwinian – if security breaches,

customers will leave. So they are in the security business… • Understand encryption implications & multi-tenant

handling of data• Look for Safe Harbour agreement to be in place if data is

leaving Europe• When you read the hype - consider what IT managers have

to gain from moving to a public cloud…

SMEs & Cloud Computing

Recession: An opportunity or a threat

What are the threats?• Customers are expecting the same for less (but maybe not so

much shouting for ‘more’ like before)• Staff cutbacks are leaving dangerous holes in the IT knowledge

base of organisations• Asking for budget for another server just doesn’t cut it…

What is the reality?• This is more than a cyclical change in the IT market; the recession

has become a catalyst for a new technology paradigm• Most major IT vendors are converging on the Cloud subscription

model• The Cloud USP has a critical role in this market; no capital outlay,

no infrastructure to scale and manage, control to incrementally decrease IT footprint as well as grow it

• Deployment lead times are reduced so projects are cheaper

SMEs & Cloud Computing

Recession: An opportunity or a threat

What is my experience?• The basic building blocks are there, so our deployment has

been faster• The capital outlay has been less than it would have been

historically; so the pay back in the business case is indeed faster

• Sizing of the solution is straightforward; it will scale as needed

• The recession is a chance to spring clean, a chance to build support for programme of IT renewal with long term efficiency in the Cloud

SMEs & Cloud Computing

Collaboration: So what is the opportunity?

The past• Vendors created their cloud offerings in isolation; Gmail,

MSN messenger…• Open source communities cooperated on ‘on premises’

solutions• Early Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture led to cross

enterprise programming interfaces• A rush took place to create interfaces into the vendor’s

Clouds• Amazon Web services; everything from virtual servers to

search engine optimisation made available through an API

SMEs & Cloud Computing

Collaboration: So what is the opportunity?

The present

• A second rush by smaller vendors to create add on solutions to primary vendors; the Salesforce Appexchange, Netsuite SuiteBundler

• Also cloud to cloud integration (LinkedIn to huddle.net)• Best of breed solutions now with much reduced integration costs –

ideal for SMEs• Projects are shared within communities – e.g. CastIron integration

projects that link business applications are shared between licensees

• Knowledge is being shared through communities such as twitter & facebook; have a look at the Salesforce.com service cloud…

• Jobs are being advertised and expertise shared on LinkedIn

SMEs & Cloud Computing

Standardisation: An opportunity AND a threat

The opportunity

• A ready made IT roadmap; everything has been considered security, scaling, consistency, performance & availability, version control, programming language

Things to watch

• Choosing a cloud is a decision point on the IT roadmap• The leading clouds all have different ‘flavours’;

– Google Apps is search optimised (python & big table)– Salesforce is Customer relationship orientated– Microsoft is versatile but it will continue the licensing

arrangements…– Amazon – low complexity and high volume

Things that a small business can do…

Get some free advertising on LinkedIn – set up a company profile & build your contact management database there

Stop using paid for conference calling solutions and do conference calls and instant messages on Skype

Ditch your exchange server and push your corporate email through Google’s GMail

Move your website to Amazon Web services and run it on a cheap low cost instance. (And convert it to Wordpress so that you can edit it yourself)

Start using Zoho instead of Microsoft Office if you have to buy a new license

Things that a medium size business can do…

Start investigating how you can move some of your business systems into the cloud – Saleforce, Netsuite, Right Now

Do an audit of your server room – do you have one server per employee?

If you pay for an expensive web analytics system; close it down and use Google analytics

Next time you think about hiring a programmer, investigate hiring a business analyst instead – programming is giving way to configuration of services. Check out http://www.geticeberg.com/

Find out what others are saying about your business on collaboration platforms like Twitter

SMEs & Cloud Computing

Conclusions

Maturation of Cloud solutions offered by Microsoft, Oracle and others will make the playing field clearer with experts emerging on transitioning into the cloud

SMEs will move standard solutions to the cloud and then focus on managing their own core competences; integrating both will deliver the full value chain

Public clouds will become more SME business orientated and less consumer orientated; venture capital has dried up and cloud services need to monetise, e.g. Skype for business

And finally...

None of what we’ve talked about will work for your business

Unless you have…

A fast, reliable, resilient, internet connection.

http://www.easynetconnect.net

SMEs & Cloud Computing

Any Questions?