By: Joe Kinsella, Founder & CTO, CloudHealth Technologies
As we start 2016, cloud computing is becoming increasingly
critical to the success of our Massachusetts innovation economy. Whether you
are moving infrastructure from a co-location facility to Amazon, migrating to
Office 365, or operating a hybrid cloud, cloud computing has certainly become
strategic to the success of you and your organization. The reasons driving the
cloud are generally well understood today: increased agility, consumption-based
pricing, access to global infrastructure, outsourced management, and the
ability to reduce operational costs. However, I believe the single greatest
benefit of the cloud is the innovation it has enabled.
critical to the success of our Massachusetts innovation economy. Whether you
are moving infrastructure from a co-location facility to Amazon, migrating to
Office 365, or operating a hybrid cloud, cloud computing has certainly become
strategic to the success of you and your organization. The reasons driving the
cloud are generally well understood today: increased agility, consumption-based
pricing, access to global infrastructure, outsourced management, and the
ability to reduce operational costs. However, I believe the single greatest
benefit of the cloud is the innovation it has enabled.
As the founder of the Boston-based, fast-growing SaaS startup,
CloudHealth
Technologies, I started my business with nothing more than a laptop
and the cloud. While today our SaaS service is backed by highly-complex and
globally-distributed infrastructure, this system was built incrementally as I
grew my business. During my first month, I spent $11 with Amazon Web Services
(AWS). At month six, I was spending $63 to operate my service, which by then
had several large-paying customers. The ability to free myself from the
undifferentiated heavy lifting of managing low-level infrastructure allowed me
to focus on the single most important activity to an entrepreneur: innovating
on behalf of my customers.
CloudHealth
Technologies, I started my business with nothing more than a laptop
and the cloud. While today our SaaS service is backed by highly-complex and
globally-distributed infrastructure, this system was built incrementally as I
grew my business. During my first month, I spent $11 with Amazon Web Services
(AWS). At month six, I was spending $63 to operate my service, which by then
had several large-paying customers. The ability to free myself from the
undifferentiated heavy lifting of managing low-level infrastructure allowed me
to focus on the single most important activity to an entrepreneur: innovating
on behalf of my customers.
Today, there are still many challenges to be confronted in
the cloud. Some of these include:
the cloud. Some of these include:
- Complexity – The cloud today is moving at an incredibly
fast pace. Each year, quarter and month, it continues to evolve at a rate
rarely seen in any other industry. We must find ways to contain the “cloud
sprawl” and harness its power for our businesses. - Governance – We must identify new process models and
technologies to provide the agility we demand of the cloud while maintaining
proper governance required by our organizations. - Security – While the cloud is generally acknowledged to
be more secure than private data centers, it has introduced new risks and
complexities that must be carefully understood and managed. - Costs – While the highly efficient use of the cloud can
enable smart growth, controlling costs as you grow requires continuous
vigilance. The most common cause of “cloud dropouts” is uncontrolled costs. - Vendor lock-in – We are becoming increasingly dependent
on the IaaS, PaaS and SaaS services we adopt. Businesses need to chart smart
strategies for where they need vendor independence, and where they are willing
to accept lock in. - Hybrid cloud – Unless you are a cloud-native business,
you will likely have to live with a messy hybrid future that includes multiple
clouds, data centers and supporting products / technologies. While the
available options for managing this are improving, it requires a carefully
defined strategy.
As the Massachusetts Technology Council (MassTLC) pulls us
together next week for When, Where and How to Go to the Cloud: Sharing Best
Practices amongst Peers, it is a great time for us to do what we do
best: grow our innovation economy through open collaboration and sharing. I
look forward to hearing from our great guests, including Dave Krupinski, CTO
& co-founder of Care.com, Stefan Piesche, CTO at Constant Contact, Cathy
Bilotta, Strategic Director at Raytheon, and Jeff Lamoreaux, CIO at Global
Partners.
together next week for When, Where and How to Go to the Cloud: Sharing Best
Practices amongst Peers, it is a great time for us to do what we do
best: grow our innovation economy through open collaboration and sharing. I
look forward to hearing from our great guests, including Dave Krupinski, CTO
& co-founder of Care.com, Stefan Piesche, CTO at Constant Contact, Cathy
Bilotta, Strategic Director at Raytheon, and Jeff Lamoreaux, CIO at Global
Partners.
See you all on the 26th!
About Joe Kinsella
Joe is CTO
and Founder of CloudHealth Technologies, one of the fastest growing companies
in the emerging Cloud Service Management field. Joe is focused on helping organizations realize the full potential of the
cloud, without having to sacrifice cost, performance, availability, or service
level. With 20+ years of experience
delivering software for companies of all sizes, Joe sees CloudHealth bringing
the cloud to the enterprise by enabling the next generation of IT service
management for the cloud.
and Founder of CloudHealth Technologies, one of the fastest growing companies
in the emerging Cloud Service Management field. Joe is focused on helping organizations realize the full potential of the
cloud, without having to sacrifice cost, performance, availability, or service
level. With 20+ years of experience
delivering software for companies of all sizes, Joe sees CloudHealth bringing
the cloud to the enterprise by enabling the next generation of IT service
management for the cloud.
