Hey! You! Get Off My Cloud!

Hey! You! Get Off My Cloud! Paul Robichaux paul@robichaux.net

Agenda • Introduction • Some Cloud Claim Chowder • Cloud-Based Services • Questions?

Introduction • The cloud services market is growing hugely • Exact estimates vary widely • Many analyst firms have no clue but get quoted anyway • E.g. One analyst firm changed their forecast by more than half from last year to this year but covered it up by changing the time scale

Cloud Services: A Taxonomy • Messaging itself • Message hygiene • Continuity / disaster recovery • Compliance, archiving, and retention • Other messaging security • UC • Collaboration

Cloud-Based Messaging Players • Tier 1: the software OEMs go hostal • Microsoft, Google, IBM Lotus, Zimbra • Tier 2: major players that run software from tier-1 companies • AT&T, Intermedia, GoDaddy, Elephant Outlook • Tier 3: offerings you’ve probably never heard of • Novell Pulse (seriously!) • LiveOffice • Many others…

Claim Chowder • Term coined by Mac zealot John Gruber • Refers to bold predictions that later turn out to be incorrect • Example: Nokia CEO proclaiming iPhone 1.x a failure • I like the phrase so I stole it

Claim Chowder, Microsoft Style • Exchange is great when used on-premises • But it’s just as good when hosted at Office 365 • We have every feature you need • Except for the ones our partners deliver • Our hybrid model is the most flexible • We are fully committed to on-premises Exchange

ASP-Flavored Claim Chowder • The cloud is cheaper, easier, more flexible, and more awesome • If it does what you want it to • Traditional vendors like MS “don’t get it” • Except that many ASPs run the same products, just hosting it themselves • Our cloud services are enterprise-ready • For some values of “enterprise”

Service areas in Detail

Messaging • Goal: behave just like the e-mail you have now • Except that someone else runs it for you • Hybrid solutions becoming more popular • Exchange 2010 pioneers in this area • Full benefits require MS to deploy Office 365

Compliance / Retention / Archiving • Goal: keep you out of jail • Preserve required data • Allow discovery searches • Prove compliance through reporting • This may involve • Acting as a journal recipient • Providing write-only storage • Providing high-integrity storage • Advanced discovery capability • Being a bonded / insured agent

Message Hygiene • Goal: filter all the garbage out of your message stream • Secondary goals • Filter and control outbound traffic • Provide various policy and control services

Continuity / Disaster Recovery • Goal: keep business running when disaster strikes • Can be accomplished by • Off-site mirroring • Web-based dial-tone services • Mobile device extension support

UC • Goal: deliver voice / IM / presence / conferencing • Complicated enough to do this on-premise • More so when you consider hybrid models • Outside the scope of this session

Collaboration • Everything else! • Some vendors tout their non-e-mail related capabilities • These are interesting, but… • Integration can be a real challenge • Pricing is all over the map • Solutions are often feature-poor

Cloud pros and cons

Compliance / Retention / Archiving Claim chowder… The reality It may cost less But how much? True Proof against your tampering True • Costs less • Pay for what you use • Platform-agnostic • Tamperproof • Anywhere access

Compliance: Assessment Questions • What compliance problems are you trying to solve? • Cloud is good for preservation, search • Bandwidth and storage costs may be significant • Do you trust the vendor? • Security certifications, bonding, S&P statements • Look for specialized expertise in vertical if you need it

Compliance: The Verdict • It depends…

Message Hygiene Claim chowder… The reality Maybe Yes Yes Yes • Costs less • Easier to deploy • Better filtering • More control

Message Hygiene: Assessment Questions • Are you happy with your existing anti-spam / anti-virus solution?

Message Hygiene: The Verdict • Message hygiene is perhaps the perfect “poster child” for cloud services • Using a cloud filtering service almost always gives you more capability for less money than you could provide yourself • Backup MX service alone is worthwhile

Continuity / Disaster Recovery Claim chowder… The reality Maybe But there are ongoing costs too Migration in is easy; out, not so much Good flexibility and agility May not protect everything Management troubles • Costs less • Pay for what you use • Easier to deploy • More flexible • More survivable • Self-service

Continuity / DR: Assessment Questions • What are you protecting against? • Does the cloud solution give you anything that Exchange doesn’t? • Does the solution understand your applications? • Beware of “dumb” solutions

Continuity & DR: The Verdict • It all depends…

Messaging Claim chowder… The reality It may cost less But there are ongoing costs too Migration in is easy; migration out, not so much Good flexibility and agility Some features not available • Costs less • Pay for what you use • Easier to deploy • More flexible

Messaging: Assessment Questions • Will you actually save any money? • Factor in user productivity, SLAs, license costs, staffing costs • What parts of your existing system will stay? Which will be replaced?

Messaging: Assessment Questions • Are you lowering costs while giving up something more important? • Security? (Include auditing) • DR / resilience • Policy control • Centralization

Messaging: Assessment Questions • Can you make a quantum leap? • Moving to the cloud may be less expensive than migrating directly • Does the cloud service give you anything you can’t get elsewhere?

Questions?

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Hey! You! Get Off My Cloud!