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That said, the challenge remains that there is still a gap between solutions that are making full use of the cloud, and solutions that have moved over to the cloud. It’s no longer as simple as relocating on-premises elements to the cloud – a ‘lift and shift’ model. Instead, businesses need to avoid those ‘cloud-washed’ products, which are nothing more than on-premises software installed on the cloud, in order to truly benefit from the cloud.
So how does one determine if a product is built for the cloud or if it is a cloud-washed imposter?
Cloud washed systems vs the cloud
The cloud is an opportunity for IT to get exactly what it needs when it needs it, whilst paying only for what it uses. It enables any business to consume necessary services without having to figure out the machinations of security, scaling, deployment, cost, programming languages, architectures, and delivery that companies using legacy infrastructure have been so hindered by for years.
A product designed for the cloud takes advantage of its unique nature and dynamically matches a company’s workload to the amount of resources needed. A cloud-native product changes its use of cloud resources throughout the day in order to maximise resources when they are needed, whilst minimising costs when they are not. It also tends to prefer cloud-native services, such as object storage instead of block storage, or AWS’ RDS or DynamoDB, instead of running similar tools inside a VM.
A cloud-washed system, on the other hand, treats the cloud as another co-location facility, and uses the same amount of resources throughout the day. This means that, like an on-premises deployment, the cloud resources paid for will be based on the maximum capacity of the business’s system needs at any given point. Cloud-washed software services tend to prefer block storage, databases and applications run inside VMs, over using native services they could consume on an as-needed basis.
Consider a data protection system that consumes significant compute and storage resources when running backups, but does little else the rest of the day. A true cloud system would automatically spin up significant compute and storage capacity when running backups, then spin down those resources the rest of the day. It would also be able to use Amazon S3 as the primary storage for its backups. A cloud-washed system would be installed on one or more VMs large enough to handle the largest backup run, and those VMs will run 24x7 – even though their compute capacity is only needed a few hours per day. A cloud-washed system would prefer block storage – significantly more expensive than object storage – for backup storage.
While a product designed for the cloud can offer significantly more power when needed, a cloud-washed system spends money on resources that aren’t needed. This creates a less powerful system. Cloud washing translates to significantly more cost for a lot less power.
Software and the cloud
Another way to see how much a given solution leverages the cloud is to see if it is offered as software that runs in your account, or as a service run in the vendor’s account. If the product is offered only as software for you to run in a cloud account, it is most likely cloud-washed. If it is offered as a service that can be consumed – without managing the resources behind it – then it is most likely a cloud-native service.
If software is purchased to run in a business’s cloud account – even if it is offered as a subscription and called “SaaS,” the difference in management cost will be significant. This means the business will be responsible for the following:
With a true cloud-based SaaS provider, however, the vendor is responsible for all of those things.
True cloud-based products – which are usually offered as a SaaS solution where you do not manage the resources behind the product – are the best way to leverage the cloud without exploding costs. They reduce the burden of responsibility on the CIO and IT staff, and it should also create new high-value opportunities. It’s imperative to not overlook this point.
For example, when backup operations move to the cloud, a backup administrator might naturally assume their job is eliminated. This isn’t the case. What it does do, however, is free-up time for more value-add tasks. This in turn reduces costs by enabling a business to focus its resources on the build of a disaster plan that perhaps, the team never had time to look at before.
Moving critical operations to the cloud isn’t a technology decision – it is a business priority. For businesses looking to lighten their IT burden – it’s time to embrace the cloud – or risk falling behind the competition.
