There’s two different philosophies about cloud computing, hybrid and ‘pure’. In recent days the hybrid school hasn’t been doing so well, but the matter isn’t settled yet.
Pure cloud computing means doing everything in the cloud with all your software running over the net with the data stored on other people’s computers and everything is accessed through web browsers.
Hybrid cloud is where some of the work is done on your computer or smartphone with data often being synchronised between the device and the cloud storage.
Most smartphone and tablet computer apps do this and increasingly software like Microsoft Office and Apple iLife have a hybrid cloud computing angle.
Apple’s hybrid cloud service, iCloud, promised Apple users the ability to work on any device – laptop, desktop, tablet or smart phone – with the synchronised with central servers. Every Apple product you own can then access your iCloud data.
Recently though stories in the The Verge and Ars Technica report how Apple’s developers and customers are becoming steadily irritated by the lousy reliability of the company’s iCloud service.
Incumbent software and hardware vendors like Microsoft and Apple are pushing the hybrid idea for a good reason, it allows them to maintain their existing PC and laptop based products while being able to offer cloud services like their competitors.
For Microsoft and Apple, along with companies like Oracle, Dell and MYOB, the hybrid cloud gives them an opportunity to wriggle out of what Clay Christensen called The Innovator’s Dilemma.
Customers actually like the hybrid cloud as many distrust ‘pure’ cloud offerings as they don’t trust the providers or their internet connections. Basically they like to have a copy of their data stored in house.
The problem with the hybrid cloud is that it’s complex as Xero’s founder Rod Drury, one of the ‘pure cloud’ evangelists, said at his company’s conference last year, “hybrid technologies are cumbersome and add far more complexity into software. Cloud technologies are the right technologies.”
Complexity is what’s bought Apple’s iCloud unstuck as even some of best developers struggle with getting their programs to work with it.
All is not well for the ‘pure cloud’ evangelists either, as the shutting down of Google Reader has shaken many technologists and made them question whether the cloud is as safe as they would like.
Added to this uncertainty about the cloud is lousy service by providers, arbitrary shutting down of user accounts and the corporate boycott of Wikileaks – all of which have forced people to reconsider the wisdom of saving all their data or running applications in the cloud.
So the debate between the cloud purists is by no means over and it may well be that some form of hybrid, even just for local backup to your own computer, may turn out to be the common way we use cloud services.
What is for sure though is cloud software is biting deeply into the revenues of established software companies as people find the attractions of running programs and storing data on other people’s computers outweighs the risks.
Like all relatively new concepts it’s going to take a while for us to figure out how to use cloud computing most effectively in our business. The first step is how we manage the risks.
Hi Paul – I would like to help explain a few things as I believe you have confused consumer Apple offerings with Business grade Cloud solutions. Apple is a consumer focussed company. They make really cool devices – but not enterprise eMail, Cloud Storage or workflow solutions.
Paul – there is no debate. Pure Cloud is the biggest revolution to ‘work as we know it’ since the industrial revolution – moreover Big Data businesses Oracle, SAP, IBM, Microsoft etc are now scrambling to reinvent themselves. The real debate is will they / traditional IT businesses be relevant in the future?
Google, Xero, Salesforce, Box and Amazon were all born in the Cloud. Moreover ‘Business’ will and is moving towards centralized information and the freedom to work from anywhere from any device. The expensive in house server is now dead! as is the PC – the benefits and shift from Capex to Opex is breathtaking. Reduced IT costs, rebooting productivity, improved bottom line and empowered happier staff!
Soon with ubiquitous Internet speeds (NBNCo) most business workflows and processes will be served via the browser from really Big Secure Encrypted Data Centres mirrored around the globe. No backups, no software upgrades and no viruses Clean reliable data.
The analogy. Think Edison’s centralized power grid at the turn of the last century. In Australia this great site is the leading authority in this space – http://www.boxfreeit.com.au and Gartner’s Feb 2013 report – EFSS (Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing – really helps nail the Consumer vs Enterprise debate.
Happy to chat anytime.
Thanks for the commenting Tony, I think general themes are valid whether we’re talking enterprise or consumer.
Certainly companies like Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and VMWare want to push some version of a hybrid cloud if only to protect their existing revenue streams.
Within most large organisations there are also misgivings about trusting process and/or data to third parties and in many of these I suspect we’ll see even more complex hybrids of public cloud, mixed with private cloud and in-house data centres to meet management’s real or perceived needs.
For consumers and SMBs I suspect the pure cloud is going to be the solution for almost everybody as the cost, benefit and risk equation overwhelming favours it.
Sholto does a great job at Box Free IT and it’s good you’ve given him a shout out for the best cloud computing resource on the web. I totally agree it’s the first place to go on this topic.
Hi Paul and Tony, thanks for the kind words.
Paul – you raise some pertinent issues and you’re right, the dust hasn’t yet settled. I’d like to challenge your definition of hybrid, though.
Hybrid cloud computing refers to a company using highly virtualised, dedicated servers (often called a ‘private cloud’) and a ‘public cloud’ provider such as Amazon or Rackspace to handle spikes in demand too large for the private cloud to meet. (See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_cloud#Hybrid_cloud)
The key point is that the company’s data is largely stored on its dedicated servers, except when it’s sent to the public cloud for on-demand processing.
I would exclude mobile apps from the definition of hybrid cloud because usually the bulk of the data is stored on the public cloud servers. The mobile app is essentially only caching the most recent data – it’s like a window onto the pool of information.
Eg. You can’t search across all the emails in your Gmail account from your iPhone’s Mail app because they’re not all on the phone, only the latest. The proof that this isn’t hybrid: turn off the phone and you can still access all your emails with another phone or your computer.
I’d also argue that Google Reader is just another discontinued product. Microsoft discontinued Small Business Server software last June with enormous ramifications for SMBs worldwide. And online and on-premise products face boycotts. It sucks no matter whether it’s a cloud or on-premise product.
That’s a terrible story about Amazon, though. There needs to be some Fair Digital Trade Tribunal or something to weigh in for consumers. Doesn’t really apply in the consumer side of things but the Open Stack movement (led by Rackspace) is pushing businesses to store their data in one cloud and back it up to another, for several reasons including ongoing access.
Thanks Sholto, I think we’re crossing lines on the definitions. The post is looking at the implementation of software that tries to use a combination of cloud and local resources such as some Apps, Apple iCloud and Microsoft Office 365.
MYOB’s attempts to do this is what attracted Rod Drury’s scorn and Apple’s struggle to get this right is the core of The Verge and Ars Technica articles.
We should keep in mind too that cloud isn’t just about storage and this where the definition of ‘hybrid’ I’m using comes in – a pure cloud service is Google Docs where the application and storage are on the web while a hybrid is an app where some of the processing work is done on the smartphone or tablet while data is saved to a cloud.
Always happy to discuss it more.
Ah yes – I see what you mean. Software interfaces using browser and mobile = hybrid, versus browser only which = cloud. Apologies for the confusion!
MYOB is the first company I’ve heard use these descriptions. Is anyone else? My feeling is that it’s more a marketing ploy to attack Xero and Saasu: “hybrid is better than cloud because you can use it without an internet connection”.
I don’t know if it’s such an accurate reflection of how the tech works given my reasons above. Will be interesting to see if MYOB maintain their position once their fully-fledged cloud-only software arrives. I doubt it.
(Microsoft had a similar pro-hybrid approach with Office 365 first came out, but it was called “Software plus services”. They’ve dropped that line and now just talk about cloud.)
Great topic Paul – Good discussion guys. We need more of this to help and assist SMB’s get there head in the Cloud!