In the last 3 – 4 years, one of the most common buzz words in the IT industry is “CLOUD”. Most of the IT Software / Hardware / Service / Application providers have been busy setting up their own cloud platforms ( Azure, Office 365, Amazon, Google cloud, Oracle Cloud , Apple, Samsung etc) in order to create their own eco-system to provide better, cheaper and faster services to their customers.
From a SharePoint perspective – Microsoft is pushing us to use Office 365, Azure, Sky Drive and so on, rather than the on-premise platforms that we have all come to love and learn. You only have to look at the stats below to see how the last 2 SharePoint Conferences have played out.
- SharePoint Conference 2011 : There were a total of 18 Cloud Sessions and 219 On-Premise Sessions. (see ‘SPC-2011_Sessions’). That means 7.6% of all sessions were Cloud.
- SharePoint Conference 2012 : There were a total of 106 Cloud Sessions and 164 On-Premise Sessions. (see ‘ SharePoint Conference 2012 Sessions’). That means 39.2% of all sessions were Cloud.
- So from 2011 to 2012 we saw 5 time more Cloud related sessions. When you think that Yammer is now a big part of the stack, 2 guesses how this figure will grow in 2013! In fact I would make a big guess that 60-70% of the sessions will now be related to Cloud.
The big question is – what is this doing to our careers ?
I have personally been working with .Net (and later SharePoint) for the last 14 years. I have also started working with the Windows Azure platform (as a Beginner) for a current client. It’s amazing to see that using Cloud tech (Office 365 and Azure) is not only impacting the IT technical people, but it also drives the business to think about their processes and solution in very different ways.
I am posting my question to the community to get your opinion and here your experiences when working with Office 365 / Azure
- Cloud, Office 365 , Azure – Is it the beginning of the end of the on-premise platform?
- Are you finding ways to re-define your job role and move with the times ?
- What will it do for our jobs (i.e how does it impact the SharePoint Business / Analysts / Developer / Architect / Infrastructure users?)
- Is it cost effective compared to the on-premise solution ? (Azure pretty expensive still).
I have been working with Office 365 for a while now. There is a lot to like and equally a lot to hate. It would be interesting to not only see what sessions would feature, but where the bias would lie. Some of my thoughts with working with the online version;
– Deployment and configuration of SharePoint, Workflow Manager, Lync etc. is no longer a mountain to climb. Its already done for you. When setting up link; you know how tedious it can be.
– A lot more thinking on which API/Object Model to use; the Server Object Model (SOM) is out of the window, within the Client you have options between the RESTful approach or the .Net client libraries, the Silverlight and each has slightly varied support. Together with this documentation can be misleading (although I have not personally encountered much discrepency in this regard – just dead ends!).
– Leading on from that, some things are possible in on-premises deployment, but not so with the online version (such as packaging and download, especially when using the Client models).
– Little guidance on the future of Sandbox solutions (but that’s a general comment with SharePoint 2013).
– App Model is not mature. Certain apps can be hosted within SharePoint ‘box’, others need azure or self hosted; yet there is also little guidance on self-hosting – i.e. how to configure your servers.
– Local host debugging is a pain.
– Certain types of development (e.g. remote event receivers) require a dedicated host other than the SharePoint box (Azure or your own).
– Authentication from ‘some clients is more of a challenge than needs to be.
There are others but that’s adequate as a sample. I hope, in the conference, they simply don’t emphasize the positives, but also delve deeper into some of the pains and future path certain things are taking.
Yes it is another opportunity for certain roles, the business do require good resources but maybe not 100% of the time, think it will more likely move to outsource platform tasks to consultancy’s/contractor’.s
I’m currently working for a client where we are possibly looking at moving a WSS platform to O365. This isn’t without its own issues. The authentication used for external clients is causing a major issue as they will need a Microsoft account with O365. Also the speed has been been commented on quite a few times from speaking with our infrastructure team backups arent going to be straight forward either and therefore item level recovery isnt. some of our sites are large a few around a few GB’s mark. Then you have to consider their patching/upgrade policy too. All is drawing us closer to a SP2010 upgrade.
When you have xxx,xxx users or a high number you are in a good position to get a good license deal which will allow you to de-commission your Outlook, Lync and SharePoint platforms. On paper the number will stack up, however performance and practicality may not. Seeing the performance under use id be declined to doing much customisation on this platform.
Have many of you deployed Custom apps to O365? What are you impressions of performance for the enterprise?
Thanks Neil…I agree with your views. The IT / Business sector has to adapt to this. Most of the customers have already started looking into this CLOUD option as a solution for their requirement. I think, there are areas where the Business and IT has to make some decision on Sensitive data, Proprietary assets storage, flexibility, Cost (Running and Initial setup) etc…to adapt the CLOUD based solution.
The recent study says nearly more than 75% customer prefer on-premise or hybrid solution. I think this will change on time and Microsoft is also releasing new features to Office 365 before the on-premise version.
I disagree – and the Cloud will not impact your job whatsoever, it will mean you will have to adapt as always.
The Cloud is not a new phenomenon in fact this is just another cycle of industry change, which has been seen many times decade after decade. Take a look ta this US poster picture , when telephones started to become common place, cynics believe the weird tapping on the line was seen as intrusion, a removal or privacy or at least loss of control and telephone companies would abuse your usage. The invention that is the telephone did suffer the same fate, but we adapted and use them everywhere, not to say Homeland Security I am sure are always a hot topic in the US today as it was then.
So what are the opportunities ?
IT will finally be able to meet business demands on a cost model first and on a distribution model second.
Take a look at this picture – this is from my local Hair Salon where I live. This is a Cloud Business Model, “Hair as a Service”. This innovative lady now operates a multi-tenanted hair salon, any competent Hair stylist can hire for a day a Chair in her salon, with equipment and bring in their own customers, and their own charging model, whilst you lease the tenancy for one chair in the salon.
This is a great business model, reusing resources. Yes you may have some multi-tenancy concerns, but you are isolated. Her business is taking off, and she is creating a fantastic collaborative community too. She will no doubt like a online boking service soon, with workflow and ordering and sales management. An “IT model to match the Business model ” – and that is the opportunity ! Finally IT caught up wit the Business.
In summary, Cloud is nothing more than the logical next step, from
1) Mainframe: One computer – Many people
2) PC: One computer – One person
3) Ubiquitous Computing: Many computers – One person
3) will bring many opportunities.
When Water first came through a Tap, and water companies charged by the usage, did this mean all Drainage engineers lost their jobs ? No – it meant we all got to work differently, and provide better services to the end user.
For me the exciting part is that FINALLY IT will start to meet the demands of the Business, and Business models, like the one’s above – can implement solutions on demand to their requirements rather than the constant adage that IT is the issue and needs to catch up.
In the 90’s I read a MS email that made me feel the same way, it said “COM is Dead” – I was distraught. Ted Pattison halted my technical skills, he did not remove them. But then I got my hands on Visual InteDev and the cycle rolls on…
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