The Cloud Conversion That Never Happened And Why

I'm often struck by how reluctant many business owners are to seriously consider a cloud network, even in the face of overwhelming practical evidence and very convincing and persuasive financial arguments. And I've spoken and written frequently about this and still find myself searching for answers.

I even thought of titling this article, "How Human Nature Makes the Familiar Appear Better Even When it's Not."

But one conclusion I've reached is that the responsibility for most of this reluctance lies with us in the IT support business. So few of us have really developed meaningful cloud offerings and then we play into the timidity and natural conservatism of most business people by giving them not just what they want, but what they're used to.

I understand this but I think we've missed the boat here. Isn't it our job to introduce new technology that can help a business be more profitable through greater productivity? To promote more environmentally responsible options, faster computing, greater accessibility and demonstrably better data security? Of course it is. So why isn't it happening?

I think it can be chalked up to the lack of a sales mentality on the part of a great share of the IT community. After all, when a salesperson runs into resistance during the course of selling their product, what do they do? Well that depends on whether what they're selling is all they've got or a new alternative. In this case the cloud is the new alternative and so therein lies the problem.

Let's say I sell the finest buggies and horse drawn carriages around. Solid, well sprung, leather finishes, fine paint jobs, etc. Just connect your horses and go. Now let's say I also am the dealer for these newfangled automobile things. You've seen them. Four wheels on the ground, one in the cabin. No horses. No whips. No riding through clouds of equestrian flatulence. Protection from the elements and a glass windshield through which to view the road ahead. And headlights!

Now a lot of people are tooling around town in their horse drawn buggies and carriages and gawking at these self-propelled vehicles. You can hear the comments. "Looks dangerous." "Never had to start a horse." "Just another passing fad." Well that's okay, just stick with this awesome little buggy! It rocks, literally.

People look at these things, these automobiles. They hear me tell them why they're the way to go, the future. No horses to keep, no feed to put in, no manure to clean up. Just park this thing in the garage and it's there ready to go when you are. "Well, I'll let you folks work the bugs out, okay?" "I like my horses and I like the sound of a well-built buggy working along the road." "My wife would never get into one of those contraptions!" Hollywood serves up a great example every holiday season with Mr. Potter in his black carriage studded in silver, horses clopping through Bedford Falls. Now that was change resistance.

Yes, we humans do tend to resist change, don't we? And it's not enough for us to choose to stick with the status quo. We need to confirm our decision by pointing out the failings, real or imagined, of this new alternative.

Funny thing is, the cloud's been around a long time. In fact, if you dial up the eighties you'll see mainframes that everyone connected to with a "dumb terminal." Now that model's not just like the cloud, it actually is the cloud. Centralized computing power with terminals attached to it.

Recently we performed what we call a Cloud Readiness Assessment on the network of a local business. Their server was out of warranty and out of their dozen PC's eight were older and in need of upgrades. The manager used a PC which he wanted to keep but when I told him he could connect to the internet and his network via a Cloud Access Device and leave his laptop at him he was interested. Connect at home with your laptop which is just a sophisticated Cloud Access Device, I said. Wow, I won't have to lug my computer back and forth, he said appreciatively.

So we completed the assessment. To give him a long term view we calculated the cost of a traditional old fashioned hardware network over seventy-two months and a cloud network over the same period. It was close financially, with a cloud network coming in at just around three percent less expensive.

But that's where the comparison ended. The cloud eliminated the PC's and the server. The cloud eliminated the hassle of software for them. Now each PC didn't have to have the appropriate software and licenses, it was all on the cloud. And now all the upgrades and patches happened out of sight, on the cloud.

And it got better. Everything would run better and faster with little of no network downtime. All of the backups and the disaster and recovery plan would be automatic and upgraded and be out of sight and therefore out of mind. They just wouldn't see Portland IT support people as there was no hardware left in their offices. And the CO2 released by their old fashioned network would now be reduced by 77%.

But the client said no.

Wait, it was cheaper, vastly less intrusive on operations, faster, more secure with better backups, produced a healthier office and in essence go them out of the IT business for good allowing them to focus on their business. So what was the catch?

Well, the client wanted his data in his office. Even the promise of a backup delivered periodically didn't interest him. And the money was close so there was no huge incentive on that front. What it really boiled down to was that they were a subsidiary of a larger company. Had his decision, which he viewed as something of a gamble, turned out wrong it would be his neck on the line. So he punted and stuck with the inferior but tried and true.

Once he'd made the decision to reject the cloud it was amazing how "sold" he became. We'll be calling you, I believe in the cloud, it's the future, etc., etc. ad nauseum. But then he bought a new, $18,000 (with setup) server.

So what's the lesson? Education of our customers and recognition that the cloud is superior and that all of us should be selling it to those for whom it makes sense. It's the right thing long term but as long as there are voices spreading disinformation and pulling clients back to the past with fear tactics, the cloud will remain simply a vision, an imaginary panacea for many companies instead of what it really is: a powerfully advanced idea whose time has come.