It is becoming clearer each day why more discussions are
turning to only using IT systems and software in the future that are managed
and run in-house. Not only are advances in technology pushing the re-consideration
but the economics are trending heavily to support that thinking. The major
stimulations, however, are security and control. How long before the expanding
breaches of third party offerings are hacked and resident personal data, rent
fees and payment information is spewed out into the public domain? Now, just
going in house is in itself no panacea against a hack or breach but for
starters a ‘company of one’ represents a smaller target than broad based
services. Increased dependency is another. I have maintained for years that ‘rogue-
freemium’ file stores and social media are huge soft spots. What is clear is
that re-thinking of cyber security is now a priority. There are additional
supportive business issues in play.
As I survey the landscape more and more SaaS companies are
adding a ‘server option’ to their suites. This is happening because there is an
argument and a demand. More and more hardware companies are crafting ‘data
center in a box’ platforms. Solid state storage technology devices are making enormous
advances. Readily available network switch ‘boxes’ can control even the most sophisticated
network requirements manageable from a tablet. The use of firewalls and spam
filters have become common place. Access authentication technologies are
becoming a mandatory necessity. Sure, there are a number of additional nuances
that have to be factored in to going in-house but the core of the central argument
is becoming ever more pressing and valid. Fact is, most everything about
computing, except salaries and skills availability is getting less expensive
and scalability constraints are almost a concern of the past.
Why then the discussion? Well, we return to the basics of
the argument - security and control. If business executives understand anything
it is risk and its minimization or avoidance. Having the guts of their companies
spread out over a constellation of third party services just doesn't feel right.
As a business owner I want it where I can see it, touch it and know who controls
it.
I suppose that ‘private clouds’ will be the stepping stone
in this inevitable cycle. But even in the computing as a ‘utility’ sector there
doesn't appear to be the momentum that makes ‘private cloud services’ destined
for market wide adoption as the for everyone solution. The very idea of having
to orchestrate such a move to a public/private cloud is daunting. Sure, it will
get easier and more fluid but never non-daunting. We do know this, IT moves in
waves and even assuming that SaaS and hosted services will expand and grow, forward
thinking and planning needs to be given to what and how happens next. And,
perhaps why it must happen. Where is this headed? Unless your outsourced
service providers have an ‘in-house path’ defined for you as an option, you are
on risky future ground.
My forecast -- we are heading back in house. Welcome home.