Before you move to the Cloud

BANGALORE, INDIA: Cloud computing has been making waves in the last couple of years, with biggies like Amazon, Google & Microsoft spearheading this phenomenon. It is definitely an attractive operating environment for enterprises who are expected to worry less about hosting solutions.

Like any other technology that makes its ways through the hype cycle before hitting the mainstream, Cloud Computing is definitely at the beginning and knocking doors to gain attention. Enterprises still perceive it to be in its infancy and are taking up due-diligence exercises. Moving towards this paradigm would be a definite cultural shift for enterprises.

What is interesting is the complete shift in the way a hosting infrastructure is perceived. From the days wherein one touted 'Software as a Service' and quoted 'SalesForce.com' as a runaway success, we are heading towards a bigger operating ground in the name of 'Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)'.

IaaS definitely appeals to enterprises who have spent significant amount of time and money setting up infrastructure to run their businesses and continue to spend even more with business expansions. IaaS being offered in the paradigm of Cloud Computing takes away the onus and  hardship of putting together and  managing the hardware & software infrastructure from the enterprise. This apparently comes as a sigh of relief to enterprises, who can now operate in the mode of 'Pay per Usage' & 'Scale on demand in real-time'.

Instead of hosting solutions in their own data centers, they canmove their software assets to massive data centers owned by larger players like Microsoft,  Amazon, Google, etc. The striking feature that these biggies would offer would be the massive scalability (or, rather on-demand scale out) and a high level of abstraction on the manageability of an IT/ hosting infrastructure.

The Way  forward for developers

While a lot can be debated about the offering and the roadmap being put forth by Microsoft, Google & Amazon on  their respective Cloud Platforms, what matters at the end of the day is the ease with which applications & solutions can be conceptualized on the Cloud.  As has been the case in the past, Visual Studio has led from the front and provided tooling support for developers to conceptualize and build a variety of solutions. This does not change with the Cloud platform.

In fact, the tooling support has gotten richer and more sophisticated in addressing the reach for developers onto the Cloud. With Windows Azure, the movement to Cloud is seamless post application development. Developers get a fabric of the Cloud platform on their desktop to experience hosting, with the ease of pushing the application in a single click.

In the context of developers, another aspect that is worth discussing is the developer's approach/role in making the movement to Cloud a reality.

• It is a paradigm shift for developers in building a solution for the environment that is under their control vs. data center which is a black box to them. Cloud platform may be portrayed as the next biggest revolution, but a lot is being simplified for developers to envisage real-time instances and hosting. More than development, developers need to gain expertise and knowledge on the overall Cloud platform/offering from the chosen vendor.
• While distributed computing was considered an area of focus for developers of yesteryears, knowledge on 'Service Orientation' is considered a must to offer services for consumption (be is inter or intra application integration).
• Developers rely on tooling and depend on the support that is provided to them in tackling hosting. Developers should build expertise on the know-how to better program for cloud. Lot may not vary in terms of the way application are built, but important to understand the available capability on the Cloud.
• Built for performance becomes more critical in Cloud Computing. Unless the software is written well, it is important to make it robust to ensureminimum breakages in the Cloud. That's because it becomes a little complex to trouble shoot in the Cloud compared to taking control of a piece of hardware.
• The biggest of all, is the troubleshooting on the Cloud. One has to get acquainted with the ways and means to troubleshoot applications during downtime or crisis.

Developers play a significant role in ensuring migrating or building solutions for the Cloud platform. The entire solution building cycle has been  more sophisticated, but better control is being given to developers to host and assess performance in real-time as part of the development. The cycle time required for developers to reach the Cloud for hosting is significantly reduced compared to the earlier times of going through a few hops before getting their hands on the real-infrastructure.

Cloud Computing is making a slow, but significant progress in the minds of developers. The timing is right for the developer community to take a leap into understanding the new paradigm of operation. If Cloud Computing did exist during the dot com outburst (late 90s), then the phenomenon would have hit the acme and probably become mainstream during the middle of the current decade. However, the timing cannot be questioned, but the journey from now on is worth keeping an eye on.