According to Forbes Tech contributor Louis Columbus, “U.S.-based companies are budgeting $1.77M for cloud spending in 2017. He is so excited about it he suggests we Tweet this information, twice. There’s lots of chatter about the shift to cloud computing, and certainly, there will be profits made offering cloud services. Is it a revolution or just a change of location?
To begin this discussion, with tongue tucked neatly in cheek, I need to clear up one thing. Actual clouds do not hold data, and they are not likely to in the future. Clouds are a bunch of water vapor, and are notorious for coming apart as raindrops whenever they feel like it. An actual cloud would be a data security disaster.
As we all know, “The Cloud” is just a happier sounding name for Someone Else’s Server. So the shift to “Cloud Computing” will not decrease the use of data storage hardware, instead it will change who owns the hardware and where the hardware is stored. It will be so easy just to rent more space in the cloud that businesses will no longer have the current motivations to be tidy about data volume. Given that, the need for actual data storage will probably increase and where there is more data, there must be hardware somewhere to store it.
Little Truck-Driving Academy in Wayout, Arkansas may no longer need a small server for their 2,300 student records. Instead they will buy space at Clouds-R-Us who will store their data. Nevertheless, Little Truck’s IT needs will not go away. Their communications needs will increase, as will their need for robust modems, routers, switches, and lots of bandwidth. Network security will need a new department. If Clouds-R-US wants to get into medical records storage or banking storage — where there are significant security and archival regulations — they will need serious upgrades.
If they remade The Graduate this year, Mr. Robinson would take Dustin Hoffman aside and whisper, “data security.” All that data stored in one location make a target rich environment for hacking. Even the transmissions in and out of Little Truck-Driving Academy look tasty to a hacker. It makes the national news when J-Law’s selfies make their way out of iCloud, but it will be something altogether different when the cloud rains down banking data.
Bob Dylan Was Right
“The times they are a-changin.” The size of data centers will evolve from small units scattered throughout the landscape to concentrated dense data farms. The data storage warehouses will probably result in widespread hyperscaling, current reserved for the giants like Amazon and Google. As always, there will be new ideas and new products, but the data itself will still be on storage devices. Perhaps IBM, HPE, and Dell will start selling four petabyte JBOD and JBOF pods. Just a Bunch Of Disks pods are still hardware. All that storage is going to have to come from somewhere.
It is easy to be caught up in all this future seeing. Reality, however, moves a little slower. In 2014, Microsoft ended support for 13 year-old Windows XP, and it is still running in 56% of businesses internationally. Clouds-R-Us may dominate the market, but there will also be room for Bob’s Local Cloud. Bob will spend time schmoozing the people at the local Chamber of Commerce and win 20 or so clients for a server farm in his pole barn. Because he is a small target, and because Bob is a genius, he might even be able to offer some of the best security available. Bob will need actual servers and more of them every day as word spreads.
Data Storage may change location. Flash storage will replace spinning disks. Nevertheless, data will always need to be housed in a physical place, somewhere, and clouds will always make rain.
As it has since 1976, Frontier Computer Corp. can provide new and refurbished IT hardware and enterprise computing solutions. We have servers, drives, modems, routers switches and software. Everything you need to build a cloud, or stay connected to one. You’ll have to look somewhere else for an umbrella.
Contact FrontierUS at 866.226.6344.
Frontier Computer Corp. is a leader in providing IT solutions worldwide.
