Informed CIO: Cloud Exit Strategy
Beating Cloud Lock-In: Our 3 Top Considerations
“I feel the need... the need for speed.” It’s not just an iconic ’80s movie line anymore. IT groups are flying into the public cloud without escape plans, drawn by rapid provisioning and the ability to get new services up and running in, literally, minutes.
Racing ahead of the pack is fine until you hit turbulence. One CIO we spoke with decided to change providers and asked for his company’s data to be returned. It was—weeks later, on disk, in a proprietary format. Yet in our recent InformationWeek Analytics 2010 Cloud Risk Survey of 518 business technology professionals, when we asked those with no plans to use public cloud services about their primary reasons for holding back, just 5% cited the risk of vendor lock-in.
Now, we’re not trying to discourage adoption of these services. Six in 10 respondents to that survey are doing, or plan to do, business with a cloud provider. The advantages are too great to ignore, and as a result, these vendors are here to stay. And in fact, we’ll highlight some providers that are working to help resolve lock-in concerns. What we are trying to do, however, is ensure that an exit strategy is a standard part of your planning process. In this report, we’ll discuss ways to make informed decisions on adopting cloud services so that changing your mind doesn’t put your business at risk. (C1480710)
Table of Contents
3 Author’s Bio
4 Executive Summary
5 Fast Times
5 Figure 1: Cloud Computing Plans
6 Meta Woes
8 Too Big to Fail?
8 Figure 2: Cloud Computing Concerns
10 Prenuptial Agreements
About the Author
Patrick Foxhoven is the CIO and a co-founder of CentraComm, a leading provider of managed information security and networking services. Patrick is responsible for developing and implementing CentraComm’s overall technology vision, including next-generation network and security management. A recognized and published expert in building secure, scalable and redundant Internetenabled networks with direct network design, implementation and support experience, Patrick has more than 12 years of diverse professional hands-on experience in the service provider and managed security industries. Prior to joining CentraComm, Patrick served as VP of a regional ISP with five physical network points of presence throughout Ohio.
Patrick is also a nationally recognized security expert. He has been published in numerous industry trade magazines and co-authored two books on Juniper Networks technology. Most recently, Patrick co-authored Securing the Cloud, a vendor-agnostic cloud security book scheduled for release in late summer 2010 by Syngress, with Graham Speake, digital security consultant at BP Oil. Find more information at www.centracomm.net.
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