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Before You Move to the Cloud

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PCQ Bureau
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Cloud computing has been making waves in the last couple of years, with

biggies like Amazon, Google & Microsoft spearheading this phenomenon. It is

definitely an attractive operating environment for enterprises who are expected

to worry less about hosting solutions. Like any other technology that makes its

ways through the hype cycle before hitting the mainstream, Cloud Computing is

definitely at the beginning and knocking doors to gain attention. Enterprises

still perceive it to be in its infancy and are taking up due-diligence

exercises. Moving towards this paradigm would be a definite cultural shift for

enterprises.

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What is interesting is the complete shift in the way a

hosting infrastructure is perceived. From the days wherein one touted 'Software

as a Service' and quoted 'SalesForce.com' as a runaway success, we are heading

towards a bigger operating ground in the name of 'Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)'.

IaaS definitely appeals to enterprises who have spent significant amount of time

and money setting up infrastructure to run their businesses and continue to

spend even more with business expansions. IaaS being offered in the paradigm of

Cloud Computing takes away the onus and  hardship of putting together and

managing the hardware & software infrastructure from the enterprise. This

apparently comes as a sigh of relief to enterprises, who can now operate in the

mode of 'Pay per Usage' & 'Scale on demand in real-time'. Instead of hosting

solutions in their own data centers, they canmove their software assets to

massive data centers owned by larger players like Microsoft,  Amazon, Google,

etc. The striking feature that these biggies would offer would be the massive

scalability (or, rather on-demand scale out) and a high level of abstraction on

the manageability of an IT/ hosting infrastructure.

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Another point under debate  is related to the type of

applications to be considered for hosting under the Cloud platform. This

question often comes up because enterprises would be deprived of having finer

control over their data center assets & operations like they have today. My

argument to this is why do you need finer control when the Cloud platform

abstracts most of it and takes away the hassle & hardship in keeping the lights

on at the data center. This is where the differentiation is being made in

qualifying the term 'Enterprise Cloud Computing' (which indicates hosting

enterprise applications which are crucial to the basic operations of a business

or a typical line of business application in the Cloud). Other types of

applications considered for hosting are typical consumer applications that are a

service offering from a business. These are the two kinds of qualification that

is being made by customers in considering solutions to be moved to Cloud. While

the infrastructure architects decide on the ROI in embracing Cloud platform, the

privileged of the community that is in for a treat is the developer community.

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The Way  forward for developers



While a lot can be debated about the offering and the

roadmap being put forth by Microsoft, Google & Amazon on  their respective Cloud

Platforms, what matters at the end of the day is the ease with which

applications & solutions can be conceptualized on the Cloud.  As has been the

case in the past, Visual Studio has led from the front and provided tooling

support for developers to conceptualize and build a variety of solutions. This

does not change with the Cloud platform. In fact, the tooling support has gotten

richer and more sophisticated in addressing the reach for developers onto the

Cloud. With Windows Azure, the movement to Cloud is seamless post application

development. Developers get a fabric of the Cloud platform on their desktop to

experience hosting, with the ease of pushing the application in a single click.

In the context of developers, another aspect that is worth

discussing is the developer's approach/role in making the movement to Cloud a

reality.

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  • It is a paradigm shift for

    developers in building a solution for the environment that is under their

    control vs. data center which is a black box to them. Cloud platform may be

    portrayed as the next biggest revolution, but a lot is being simplified for

    developers to envisage real-time instances and hosting. More than development,

    developers need to gain expertise and knowledge on the overall Cloud

    platform/offering from the chosen vendor.
  • While distributed computing was

    considered an area of focus for developers of yesteryears, knowledge on 'Service

    Orientation' is considered a must to offer services for consumption (be is inter

    or intra application integration).
  • Developers rely on tooling and

    depend on the support that is provided to them in tackling hosting. Developers

    should build expertise on the know-how to better program for cloud. Lot may not

    vary in terms of the way application are built, but important to understand the

    available capability on the Cloud.
  • Built for performance becomes more

    critical in Cloud Computing. Unless the software is written well, it is

    important to make it robust to ensureminimum breakages in the Cloud. That's

    because it becomes a little complex to trouble shoot in the Cloud compared to

    taking control of a piece of hardware.
  • The biggest of all, is the

    troubleshooting on the Cloud. One has to get acquainted with the ways and means

    to troubleshoot applications during downtime or crisis.

Developers play a significant role in ensuring migrating or

building solutions for the Cloud platform. The entire solution building cycle

has been  more sophisticated, but better control is being given to developers to

host and assess performance in real-time as part of the development. The cycle

time required for developers to reach the Cloud for hosting is significantly

reduced compared to the earlier times of going through a few hops before getting

their hands on the real-infrastructure.

Cloud Computing is making a slow, but significant progress

in the minds of developers. The timing is right for the developer community to

take a leap into understanding the new paradigm of operation. If Cloud Computing

did exist during the dot come outburst (late 90s), then the phenomenon would

have hit the acme and probably become mainstream during the middle of the

current decade. However, the timing cannot be questioned, but the journey from

now on is worth keeping an eye on.

The author works for Microsoft India as an Enterprise

Architect Advisor and focuses on Financial Services Industry. He can be

contacted at saalur@microsoft.com

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