Foggy Clouds

Ever wanted a completely clear understanding as to what this Cloud business is about? Yes? Me too…

Unfortunately you’re unlikely to find the answer here, fear not this isn’t a self-depreciating view of the Cloud that could perhaps be perceived as threatening to the Distribution and Reseller industry in the I.T Channel, no this is my own view as to what the Fog, sorry Cloud, means to me as an individual.

First off why have I called it a Fog?  Well in much the same way as Unified Communications (UC) there are many different ideas as to what the Cloud can be and this is the answer in itself.  This isn’t some deep and meaningful read between the lines conversation, the reality, is it is whatever you want it to be.

In the same way as UC, to make the best use of the Cloud is to understand your own needs and requirements first.  One of the most reoccurring themes recently has been to use the word ‘Glue’ to describe how a product in UC can bring many Vendor products together; a good example here is AudioCodes which as we’ve discussed previously can bring together for example; an AVAYA PBX, Microsoft Lync and SIP Trunking Services. 

This is marvellous for the on-premise audience who demand local integration; however for the smaller businesses particularly those who have a travelling sales force the investment requirement to achieve Enterprise levels of UC are frightening to say the least.  It’s not just the cost but also the knowledge and maintenance that are required to ensure smooth running of day to day services.

This is where the Cloud can provide answers rather than questions.  My own view of the Cloud is that it is a Service Aggregator; that is to say, you the Reseller or end-user identifies their business requirements and from this you can identify where you have gaps or improvements that need to be made. 

An example here might be that you are running a Corgi Gas business with service engineers on the road.  The common complaint from anyone who’s ever sat at home waiting for an engineer to arrive is the milk saga.  You know the one where you’re out of milk and would like nothing more than a cup of coffee, but the dilemma of when the engineer booked for 8am to 11am still hasn’t arrived at 11.30am and you just know you’ll come back to a ‘Sorry we missed you, please phone this number to arrange a re-visit’ card politely sat on your doormat.

The solution here could be provided by a service aggregator called Esna Technologies who can provide small business focused Cloud services for Presence amongst many other features.  The customer could chose to display the Presence of their engineer on a publically viewable website during business hours to allow the customer to make informed decisions and let’s be frank sometimes no matter how bad a service is, the real pain is usually in the not knowing.

This is small example but as you look deeper into the Cloud I for one have found that Service Aggregation is the clearest way to reach a definition for something which is infinitely customisable. So where’s the glue?  Well in actual fact you’re the glue in this instance; the difference in Cloud vs. On-Premise Services centres around the many factors but the major element is costs and management. 

If you have the resources both human and financially then an on-premise solution from AVAYA, Cisco or Microsoft is currently the preferable route; but if like the tens of thousands of businesses with 200 seats or less who are riding every millimetre of our recession at present, the Cloud provides one overriding advantage…

Sometimes you need to scale down as well as up.

leave me a comment on what you think…

Christopher Ovett

Collaboration Solution Architect, Azlan (A Business Division of Computer2000 Distribution)