Reaching Higher Into the Clouds

J. Craig Lowery, Solutions Technology Strategist, Dell | 8/3/2010 | 17 comments

J. Craig Lowery
The concepts and technologies behind cloud computing are rapidly coming into focus this year. As the real value of the cloud is demonstrated, many CIOs are seriously considering it as another tool that can be used to drive more efficiency into their operations. A natural first step on the cloud journey is to move physical server workloads into virtual machines. As a second step, some of these VMs can be moved to a public hosting provider for even greater cost efficiency.

But simply moving workloads to the cloud is just the start of a longer journey. Once core cloud concepts are accepted, there are new opportunities to consider regarding how to consume cloud resources in the most efficient manner. To understand why, consider the three "service" delivery modes: SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS:

  • Software as a service (SaaS): The provider is vending access to an application that end users access using a Web browser or other thin client. Examples are Gmail, Salesforce.com Inc. customer relationship management (CRM), and HotMail.

  • Platform as a service (PaaS): The provider is vending access to an application-hosting environment to which software developers upload code, such as .NET or Java applications. Examples are Windows Azure, Force.com, and LongJump.

  • Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): The provider is vending access to hardware resources that end users typically consume as virtual servers on which they install a traditional operating system and application stack. Examples are Amazon EC2 and Rackspace.

The bulk of the enterprise migration activity so far has been in the IaaS layer, which makes it easy to take existing apps running in general purpose operating systems, put them into VMs, and "cloudify" them. After the initial migration to IaaS, however, the additional advantages of PaaS and SaaS begin to motivate a retargeting of applications to those higher layers.

What is driving the "trend to ascend"? Applications running at the IaaS layer reside in virtual machines comprising a legacy, general-purpose operating system. Though effective as a "quick and dirty" method to migrate applications to the cloud, as application containers go this combination is very inefficient. Furthermore, these "legacy" containers are still subject to related legacy software development and deployment practices. Realizing this typically triggers the upward move to PaaS, which offers richer, integrated, collaborative, and overall more productive development and optimized execution environments. Some PaaS vendors such as SalesForce, LongJump, and Intalio give end users the capability to create their own apps while ensuring the organization's IT compliance and governance controls are enforced. In some cases, the application is already written (SaaS) and simply requires a subscription.

Consequently, IT vendors are shifting more of their R&D and M&A activities to the PaaS and SaaS layers in anticipation of an influx of customers seeking to further optimize IT budgets and minimize cycle time for application development. To illustrate, consider:

  • Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) creating the Windows Azure platform.

  • Dell Inc. , Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), and Fujitsu Ltd. (Tokyo: 6702; London: FUJ; OTC: FJTSY) partnering with Microsoft to create their own Windows Azure offerings and appliances.

  • VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) acquiring SpringSource and other complementary technologies.

  • WMware's partnerships with Salesforce and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG).

  • Longstanding, successful SaaS offerings that continue to experience steady growth.

  • A plethora of PaaS and SaaS startups filling the vacuum until the larger players deliver a competing product (or acquire them).

As a technology strategist at Dell, I can personally attest to the accelerated drive the industry is putting behind development and delivery of cloud technologies. Nearly all of the large public cloud providers have built their infrastructure on Dell optimized cloud platforms. Other Dell customers are finding ways to innovate and improve their IT operations with products and services to help them migrate to the cloud. And the race to the cloud doesn't end there; we are actively listening to our customers to determine how they want to adopt cloud technologies, and working to bring them practical solutions to enable a smooth transition.

Cloud computing is real and is finally beginning to deliver on some of its promises. The winning strategy for IT organizations in this new era comprises a balance of enthusiasm and circumspection. Remember that it is a journey, with a move to IaaS being an intermediate stop on the climb to PaaS and SaaS.
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Fredric Paul   Reaching Higher Into the Clouds   8/11/2010 3:35:32 PM
Re: Whither SaaS
Craig, that makes a lot of sense. I was hoping for a nice, neat, complete solution, but in the real world we're much more likely to see ongoing, iterative improvements.
J. Craig Lowery   Reaching Higher Into the Clouds   8/11/2010 11:10:45 AM
Re: Whither SaaS
I believe work is underway now, and that the marketplace manifestation will come in waves, coinciding with IaaS mainstream adoption, then PaaS mainstream adoption, adding the newly required functionality with each wave.  

-Craig-

 
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Fredric Paul   Reaching Higher Into the Clouds   8/10/2010 7:36:19 PM
Re: Whither SaaS
I've long thought that there is a lucrative and useful third-party business opportunity in creating middleware to integrate cloud apps and platforms with each other and wiith legacy systems.

Is that happening now, or do you see it happening soon?
Fredric Paul   Reaching Higher Into the Clouds   8/10/2010 7:34:04 PM
Re: What's involved in moving from IaaS to PaaS and beyond?
Craig, that makes a lot of sense. Eventually, only a few organizations will want leverage IaaS at the lowest level.
Fredric Paul   Reaching Higher Into the Clouds   8/10/2010 7:31:25 PM
Re: Whither SaaS
Good points about the difference between power and level of abstraction. I tend to think of things evolving to higher levels of abstraction but that doesn't mean they're better or can do more.

And as for SaaS in the enterprise, clearly it's already being used extensively, but won't there be ongoing roles for SaaS, IaaS and PaaS?
J. Craig Lowery   Reaching Higher Into the Clouds   8/10/2010 3:22:29 PM
Re: Whither SaaS
You're spot-on with that observation, Matt.  The larger players have not yet been forced to adopt any other management interfaces than their own, and until there is pressure to do so, they won't.  The smaller players are banding together to create more unified solutions as a differentiating selling point.  This aspect of new technology adoption is pretty much business as usual.  As part of the maturation of PaaS and cloud computing in general, customers should and, I believe, will become more demanding of all cloud service and technology providers to deliver interoperable solution sets.  Standardization is one avenue to get there, but the more realistic and probable short-term solution is management products that bridge the various cloud islands until true, widely adopted standards emerge.  In other words - I don't think we have to wait for fully-baked and adopted standards to have a viable, somewhat unified cloud management solution.

-Craig-
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Matthew McKenzie   Reaching Higher Into the Clouds   8/10/2010 1:09:22 PM
Re: Whither SaaS
 Work is underway on cloud API's to mitigate some of this...

Craig, do you see any resistance to tearing down these cloud data silos? Take a project like OpenStack -- a lot of smaller players obviously see advantages in promoting interoperability, but most of the bigger players haven't shown much interest. Seems like there's some tension there between the desire to build share in a young market versus the obvious advantages that a focus on interoperability would deliver.



J. Craig Lowery   Reaching Higher Into the Clouds   8/10/2010 10:39:02 AM
Re: Driving SaaS - horizontal applications
Regarding your question about Dell optimized servers for cloud computing... The Dell Data Center Solutions team has been providing custom optimized hardware to the Internet's largest cloud providers for many years now.  We have recently taken our learnings from those customer engagements and created the PowerEdge C-series line of servers, which are avilable as a more general offering, and optimized for building cloud infrastructure. 

As a technology strategist working for Dell, my job is to make sure that what is happening in the PaaS layer, for example, is taken into consideration as new products are conceived and developed. One of the reasons I'm here blogging is to listen to what our customers are saying and perceiving about these technologies and their application.  This helps to shape my input to the hardware teams.

-Craig-
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J. Craig Lowery   Reaching Higher Into the Clouds   8/10/2010 10:24:34 AM
Re: What's involved in moving from IaaS to PaaS and beyond?
"3-5 years" is the standard analyst answer for a technology at this point in the hype cycle.  As I mentioned in another follow-up, I personally think 2 years to consolidate, which is required to really give a sense of ease to enterprises that it is not risky to move to the PaaS layer. 

Not everyone is riding the same car of this train.  For most, IaaS migration is the activity of the day.  My point is that - after the dust settles from moving to IaaS - the benefits of moving further up the stack to PaaS will compel customers to put pressure on the market and technology vendors to converge.

One other clarification: I do NOT think every app will be on a PaaS in 5 years!  Simply that the technology will be a viable, well understood alternative for the right applications. I DO think IaaS will become more hidden as PaaS and SaaS come to the forefront.

-Craig-
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J. Craig Lowery   Reaching Higher Into the Clouds   8/10/2010 10:15:54 AM
Re: Market maturity?
Absolutely right - the PaaS market and attendant technologies and ecosystem are nascent.  But they also are receiving the backing of major players, making big investements.  For that reason, I personally feel the time-to-adoption is much faster than the "always safe to say" 5 years.  I think within two years we'll see a lot of shakeout in the PaaS layer as customers demand convergance.
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