Yes, I'm A Recovering "Cloud Denier"

Coming from the data center and colocation world, I believed that the cloud was simply an alternative to physical infrastructure. A CapEx vs. OpEx argument. You could simply purchase server instances and storage as needed and pay for what you consumed. While mostly correct, I was also very wrong in my initial perceptions of what the cloud really was and is today. It's not what I thought. It's so much more and I believe 100% that it is where everything will go in the future.

I'll explain later.

Throughout my career, there have been a lot of naysayers when it comes to the cloud. You've heard it once, you've heard it a million times. I call them "cloud deniers." Don't worry! I was once a "cloud denier" too. You hear things like the cloud is too expensive. Okay, in some instances maybe. You hear that the cloud is not secure or there are major cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Okay, all IT infrastructure is vulnerable if setup incorrectly without a high level of attention to security policies, roles, and access. You hear about licensing issues with software. Yes. You also hear about how certain IT workloads run better on physical infrastructure. All great talking points when considering colocation vs. cloud computing. That's where a cloud readiness plan and migration strategy come into play. What belongs where and why?

Then there was an inflection point. Everything changed when I started studying for the AWS Solution Architect Associate exam. I felt like I had been hiding under a rock for the last 5-10 years as cloud adoption absolutely soared. Where have I been? You can definitely consider me in the category of a major "cloud denier." This, coming from one of the founding members of Datacenters.com. We focused, focused, focused on the colocation part of the equation and it worked. We were and still are very successful in the realm of colocation, network, and connectivity. Don't get me wrong. There's still a huge demand for colocation services and will be for some time. This is especially true with edge computing and internet of things (IoT). Interconnection, peering and WAN are all in the data center. We need colocation and data centers. However, the end-user client may change over time. That's almost guaranteed.

However, something changed. What changed? Going back to my original point. My perception of the cloud was that it was simply on-demand servers and storage. I didn't have time to dig into the cloud and learn about it. Big mistake by the way! However, what I learned is that the cloud isn't a server instance or storage bucket that you spin-up. It isn't a flat network where you have noisy neighbors. Another common "cloud denier" statement. It's an entire ecosystem that encompasses servers, storage, DNS, networking, databases, AI/ML, IoT, serverless, microservices, and more. It's truly innovative. It reduces the provisioning time for deploying applications on infrastructure from weeks to minutes. It allows you to fail without spending a lot upfront on IT infrastructure. Failing = Breakthrough = Innovation. That's my take anyway.

It's more than cloud servers and storage? Little did I know, there are more than 140 cloud-related services in AWS. Probably more by now. You can literally build everything inside of Amazon AWS - that's amazing and frightening thought at the same time. Questions arise like... What if I become too dependent on AWS? Vendor lock-in worries become top of mind. Then, I realized AWS is built with hybrid IT infrastructure in mind. Of course, they want to capture as much revenue as possible but they also make it possible to build out your infrastructure across multiple environments, locations, solutions, and providers. Note to self. You now need to start studying for at least Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Certifications. Ouch, the journey is just beginning.

How can you create a powerful hybrid IT infrastructure environment? With AWS, you have VPN and Cloud Direct Connect services that allow all of your environments to communicate privately and securely with each other. Yes, you could get sucked into the AWS rabbit hole but there's also AWS APIs and the AWS Marketplace to connect to third-party solution providers. This is the true future of IT. It's hybrid IT, hybrid cloud, and multi-cloud environments. AWS makes it easy to connect to your corporate and branch offices, data centers, and users. They really have thought of nearly everything.

I mentioned that I'm 100% convinced that the cloud is the future. Why? Because it is. All kidding aside, think about the world and where it is going.

Think about Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Instacart, Amazon.com... The list of on-demand, pay-as-you-go, and for what you consume companies, services, and products is growing. Why do we need to go to a data center to manage our IT infrastructure? It makes no sense. You're telling me that I'm going to have to get in my car and drive to a data center to perform maintenance or troubleshoot it? Even worse, I'm going to have to fly to another city or even country to do the same? Adding insult to injury, I'm going to have to guess my way through provisioning of how many servers and how much storage I need? What if it's more or less than anticipated? I'm going to have to manually provision more and install, manage, and monitor it? Can't I just swipe a credit card? Don't even get me started on dedicated hosts, reserved instances, on-demand and spot instances. There are enough consumption options and pricing tiers to squash any cloud cost argument.

So, if the cloud is so great. Why aren't all companies migrating to the cloud or adopting cloud strategies? If I had to guess, I would say that they are still trying to figure out how the cloud applies to their business or industry. How can they leverage cloud technologies? Change is hard, right? Maybe they do not have the internal resources to implement the cloud. There's also the internal cloud deniers whispering in their ears that the cloud is more costly, less secure, and doesn't work with all software or workloads.

One thing is for sure. The cloud is here in a big way and will only become more prevalent in IT. This will have cascading impacts on the data center industry and colocation providers. Tell me about your experiences and journey. I would love to hear your thoughts on whether the cloud is as great as it seems or if it's still all a bunch of hype and buzzwords.