SaaS (Software as a Service)

I have been following the cloud industry since the late 1990s, long before it was called the “cloud.” Way back then—and, for many, still to this day—the primary objections to the cloud focus on four primary issues when they compare it to on-premises systems:  (a.) cost, (b.) the functionality and flexibility available for managing cloud-based systems, (c.) reliability/uptime, and (d.) security of content.

The response of cloud-based providers relative to a) and b) have been very good. Our own cost modeling demonstrates that the cloud can be (but is not always) less expensive than on-premises systems; and the features and functions for managing a cloud-based system, provisioning users, etc., is also clearly very good for most vendors.

However, (c.) and (d.) still have room for improvement. For example:

• On May 10th, Microsoft BPOS had malformed email traffic problems that impacted some customers for between six and nine hours. It happened again two days later, with the problem lasting up to three hours for some customers. If we assume a customer was impacted for nine hours, that means the very best level of uptime that BPOS could have delivered for the month of May—assuming flawless performance for the balance of the month—was 98.79%.
• During the afternoon of June 19th, Dropbox updated its software, resulting in the service’s authentication mechanism failing. For almost four hours, you could access any Dropbox account simply by typing a random combination of characters into the password field.

My point here is not to pick on either company—both provide excellent products and services that make our work experiences better, help us to communicate more quickly and generally make our work life more efficient. I value the contributions of both companies greatly.

That said, put yourself in the shoes of a CIO or an IT manager that is making a pitch for migrating corporate services to the cloud. When the CFO or CEO points out the problems noted above, what would you say? To be sure, you have the assurances from Microsoft and Dropbox, respectively, that “Office 365 should provide more stable service” and “…we will be implementing additional safeguards to prevent this from happening again.” If you were the CIO or IT manager standing in front of your senior management, would you be comfortable with that as your defense If you were the CFO or the CEO, would that put your mind at ease?

I think what we need is a much heavier emphasis on the long-term reliability and security of cloud-based providers as the key competitive differentiators that will help us select from among them. I can visit a cloud provider’s Web site and quickly find the price of their service. However, data on their reliability (actual uptime over the past X months) or security (data from the independent lab that tested how secure their infrastructure and internal controls are) is not nearly as prevalent (although it is there for some providers), despite the fact that these parameters are much more important than their price for most decision makers.

As corporate and personal consumers of cloud services, we can vote for the most reliable and secure providers simply by asking about their performance on these parameters and using the best ones we find.

We should do just that.