Andrea Di MaioOver the last couple of weeks I had many opportunities to discuss the potential of cloud computing with several government clients over the phone or in face-to-face meetings. This has been very helpful as I’m in the process of writing research on this exact topic, following an earlier piece that I coauthored with my colleague Jeff Vining (Cloud Computing for Government Is Cloudy – subscription required).
My impression so far is that:
- Almost every person (and I really mean person, not organization) has a different definition or perception of what “cloud” means.
- Very few people are looking at all the relevant dimensions of the “cloud” (public vs private, service category, etc) as a starting point to try and address the problem above (i.e. help people move toward a common set of definitions).
- There is an assumption that moving to the “cloud” implies short-term money savings, but little articulation about where those savings would come from and what service categories have the greatest potential.
- “Cloud” computing is seen as a driver toward consolidation and standardization across government, without always realizing that it could play in the exact opposite direction (see research note Shared Services in Government: Obscured By The Cloud? – subscription required)
- Whereas government organizations are correctly worried about not being locked into one particular “cloud”, there is some confusion between “portability” and “interoperability”.
- There is a sentiment that government is large enough a vertical for vendors to be accommodating some of their peculiar security and data location requirements, yet uncertainty about how far one can push the boundaries through the standard procurement process.
- While there is greater attention to system infrastructure services, there is still a fair amount of confusion and uncertainty about the differences between a virtualized data center (internal or outsourced), IT utility services, private cloud, and so forth.
But what I found most illuminating is that conversations about the “cloud” resemble very closely those on cross-government shared or centralized services. They often reveal the struggle to find the right balance between (1) standardizing and harmonizing solutions across government, and (2) leaving individual organizations free – within certain policy boundaries – to pursue the most cost effective solution.
By now you’ll be asking yourselves: what does the title have to do with the post? Well, you can read it in different ways. First of all, those who have their heads in the cloud might be those who think and discuss about it, but are not expected to take action; while those with their feet in the cloud are supposed to move the agenda forward. Another interpretation comes from looking at different cloud service categories as a stack, ranging from infrastructure as a service at the bottom (i.e. the feet) up to business process as a service (i.e. the head): the former will be the first to move forward and to explore the opportunities as well as the threats of this new computing model.
Which one is best, or less risky?
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Category: cloud Tags: cloud computing, government, IT utility, shared services
