Some Cloud Questions I Wish I was Asked

Every week I meet with various Enterprise and Startup AWS Partners focused on the DoD and National Security end-users. The discussions range around what their questions are about the cloud, end-user cloud needs, pricing in the cloud, security in the cloud, and a dozen other topics. As you can imagine, the conversations are pretty similar across the majority of partners and end-users as most parties involved are at the same starting points in cloud-adoption.

The conversations I wish I had more often center around the questions below:

1. Why do I place “cloud pricing” as such a low priority on my list of topics to discuss about the cloud, whereas most conversations about the cloud start with “cost savings thru cloud adoption?”

Here is a question to ask any of your technical team ranging from the senior director of product development to the brand new intern for the summer using on-premise resources,

“How long would it take you to develop an idea from ideation to proof-of-concept deployment testing for 50-users in our organization?”

What you will almost always find is a complex byzantine structure of requesting resources ranging from software license approval submissions to storage needs to funding requests to security challenges and identity management concerns for the testing group. Estimates could range from 30-days to over 6-months or even longer depending on the organization!

By the time your engineer who came up with the idea has finally fought their way through the jungle of approvals and request for resources, they are likely either too exhausted to care or the very idea they had is no longer viable due to some shift in needs over time.

On 20 June 2019 I watched an AWS partner come up with an idea for a mobile application and using nothing but AWS native services spin up and deploy a server-less simple but effective mobile application for proof-of-concept testing in less than 8 working hours. The services were entirely available on AWS marketplace, the billing was handled through the partner AWS account, and deployment to the test group was managed by the Identity Access Management system deployed with the AWS Management Console. In a previous company I have worked at this would have been a 30+ day approval process for just budget requesting alone, let alone resourcing it with the correct IT services.

The materials you need to estimate cost savings with the cloud through AWS or other vendors are readily available and simple to use. AWS for example has the “Simple Monthly Cost Calculator.” The conversation we are not having enough about at companies is about speed and innovation as a result of cloud adoption.

Speed in all things from resource allocation to approval processing to R&D across an entire company to speedy testing & deployment is possible in the cloud. Organizations that are slow to move, bureaucratic in approval & resource allocation, and stifle innovation through sheer brutal administrative processing delays are bound to be outpaced by organizations that innovate quickly and out-cycle their competition.

2. What books I would recommend specific to cloud adoption?

• The Man Myth Month: I know this is computer science 101 but if you read this book you will understand the foundation of software engineering and project management. This isn’t focused on the cloud but a great starting point for IT knowledge in general.
• Ahead in the Cloud: One of the most prescient books about cloud adoption and its organizational impact from an AWS leader, Stephen Orban. Multiple chapters dedicated to diverse aspects of Enterprise cloud adoption make this a great book for nearly any role in an organization shifting to the cloud. The preface alone by Andy Jassy, AWS CEO, is well worth the price of the book.
• War Peace & IT: A great book about how innovation and the need for IT teams and business teams to restructure their relationship is necessary to survive today.
• Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1: Warfighting: This publication is the beating heart of the US Marine Corps. I know this is out of “left field,” but nearly every chapter in this publication can be utilized in business and the chapters on Complexity, Speed, and Creating & Exploiting Opportunity are all relevant to the cloud.

3. What happens in ten-years when all our services are in the cloud and we are completely reliant on AWS services, with no on-premise IT materials, nor the skilled labor necessary to set it up?

This is something I have personally wrestled with over the last several months. Regardless of which cloud vendor you go with ranging from IBM to Google to AWS, the concern that in a decade from now that vendor has a stranglehold on your business or is the foundation on which you have built your entire enterprise becomes a bad business partner is an understandable one.

On one hand my belief is that those organizations which do not adopt the cloud quickly will face a growing amount of competitors who are able to innovate quickly, keep IT costs low, and outpace those with legacy IT systems. Large organizations who fail to adopt will see small but growing aspects of their revenue disrupted by startup competitors who can address change quickly and adopt new technology faster, if not build and deploy it themselves.

On the other hand I understand the concerns of building your entire enterprise on an IT structure you do not actually control. Equipment is one thing but not having the skilled personnel necessary to deploy a from the ground up internal IT system is a “hard to hire quick” resource.

Stepping back, how much do most enterprise business really own their own IT services to begin with? The majority are either outsourced services to a third-party IT management staff or a complex enterprise account with a large hardware provider who charges incredible fees for upgrades and overhauls of IT hardware regardless of usage or needs of the organization.

The concern is still valid and I believe that the best answer I could give at this period of time would be, “While this is a valid concern for the future, the next 5–10 years are going to quickly separate those who moved to the cloud quickly and those who failed to. Those that failed to will face twice the difficulties in innovation, speed to market, adoption of new technology, and a labor force that is handcuffed to legacy equipment in decision making. The concern about a decade from now will not be relevant if your organization doesn’t exist then.”

(All opinions are my own)

You can reach me at mpben@amazon.com if you have any questions or would like to discuss any of these topics further. Connect with me here on LinkedIn. Thank you.