Cloud computing: which way is the wind blowing?

Two decades ago, cloud computing was slow, inflexible and expensive. It’s now evolved into a sophisticated world of ‘cloud native’ software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based technologies, which have never had a terrestrial version.

Early cloud vendors were more interested in locking customers in than in supporting interoperability. That’s changed–the new cloud is democratic and open. Vendors of all sizes are striving to make cloud services more user-friendly and consistent across platforms: what specialists call a simplified unified platform experience.

This new ethos is also echoing across enterprise software platforms like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). And it’s not hard to see why. Enterprise software is often unusably complex thanks to acquisitions, product launch sprawl or the relabelling of existing services.

The cloud industry offers a promise: vendors understand that in the era of home working, customers need to be able to work across public and private clouds with a simplified application and more straightforward billing for data services. The industry has put a great deal of work into simplifying packaging, metering and pricing–one example is ‘reserved instances’, where customers can buy the amount of cloud they know they’ll need.

However, we’re still some way away from cloud that can simply be turned on and off, and Mark Zuckerberg’s 2019 complaint that cloud is too expensive will still resonate with some. Enterprise cloud customers need to budget for ongoing support services like advanced security monitoring, testing, upgrades and system maintenance–and some of those costs may be unpredictable.

This means that despite the dramatic shortening of deployment windows thanks to COVID and the home working revolution, organisations shouldn’t move to the cloud without a solid plan. Cloud computing offers scalability, flexibility and changeable manageability, but only if you’re prepared for some rough weather.