What Is a Cloud Service?

I was naturally interested in Monday’s InfoWorld Story titled “Startups take SAP consulting to the cloud” that discusses cumulusIQ and another company.

One of the questions I wish had been answered in greater detail is: What makes a service cloud-based?  Is it just technical support over the network?  That’s not new.  In 1980 Digital Equipment Corporation introduced remote system diagnosis over a network (for the VAX 11/750).

What’s different and exciting about the cloud is that it delivers Knowledge as a Service (KaaS).  KaaS is the culmination of the most important Web 2.0 concepts, like crowd sourcing, software as a service, virtualization, long tail, pull versus push, and on-demand.

In KaaS, users are not hardwired to a single group of consultants and are not even buying consulting from a vendor (unless you call the individual consultants vendors). That would be far too limiting.  Instead, users buy knowledge from sellers in a global marketplace in real time.  Any number of people can participant -- consultants to make money and gain recognition; users to acquire knowledge when and where they need it without paying for “extras” like onsite visits they don’t need.

One further comment on the story:  Jon Reed is quoted as saying that cloud services are a “creature of the recession.”  How negative is that?  It implies that our customers use us because they’re broke.  But obviously there are many situations when obtaining knowledge on-demand from a global pool makes more sense than getting it from a hardwired resource (whether onsite or remote).  It is more accurate to say the cloud is a “creature of innovation.”

Comments

[Christopher M Carter]

Your not a cloud. your a Helpdesk...Or a knowledge broker but you and the other firm are not a cloud solution.
You want a real cloud go to
http://www.hiln-solutions.com/silverlining

Where we offer a REAL SAP system, All in One or ECC6, BI7, CRM2007 etc for your usage in a non-productive environment. Try it free for 30 days.

[Monty Kalsi]

Thanks Chris. I believe we are talking about two different things here.

As you know legacy applications like SAP were not designed to be multi-tenant or SaaS, to run on a Cloud. Any approach to run ECC on Amazon Cloud doesn't make it true SaaS or Cloud application.

The architecture of Cloud based applications is inherently very different than On-Premise software and the reason clients don't want the production systems in Cloud as it not true SaaS etc..

Now what cumulusIQ is pioneering is commercialization of Knowledge-as-a-Service (Kaas). KaaS combines SaaS and Crowd-sourcing to deliver JIT knowledge. cumulusIQ KaaS Marketplace is a SaaS application today delivering SAP services through the Cloud and we look to deliver many more services through the cloud over time.

Here is a link to Forrester Blog that defines different terminologies around Cloud and Cloud based services. http://bit.ly/11RpUc

[Jonerp]

Monty to be fair the quote you attributed to me is not a quote from me. What I said in the piece that is quoted, and the only part that is quoted, is: "Basically, when you look at the impact of this economy, business models are never going to return to the way [they] were. We're going to recover into a different world," Reed said. "Part of what's changing is stuff around systems integrators and consulting in the enterprise space. Companies want more innovation."

It would have been nice if you had included the whole quote to better relay my view. As you know I am a big supporter of cloud-based innovation, particularly around consulting and knowledge delivery, and I'm very hopeful cumulus will continue to have a real impact in this space.

I'm not clear why you would want to present my views in what feels like more of a closing potshot than a thoughtful engagement. In terms of that kind of engagement, my view is: I do believe the recession has created a very favorable market condition for cloud-based approaches to get traction, but what I also believe, and have said many times, is that the old business models are not coming back even when the economy recovers.

That's thanks to companies like yours that have permanently altered the conversation and offered better solutions. Next time if you are going to quote me in order to portray me as "negative," feel free to verify the quote directly with me prior to publication as I would do with you.

- Jon

[Monty Kalsi]

Thanks Jon appreciate the feedback. I spoke to Chris Kanaracus in the morning briefly (2-3 minutes) as I was getting ready for some customer calls. He said he was working on a story but I didn't know he was going to do a Press Release later in the day. I was also not aware that he had spoken to you about cumulusIQ. Anyways I should have taken the time to explain our value-prop.

Certainly as you are keenly aware KaaS is fundamentally different from pure "remote help" as Chris's Press Release eludes. I was just trying to clarify that point.

I also think that innovation around Cloud and Cloud based services are fundamentally altering the "status-quo".

Look at Salesforce.com, they fundamentally altered the consumption model for software by focusing on the front-line sales people instead of their managers. The adoption grew organically without the need for heavy "org chg mgmt" strategies.

It is true recession and economic downturn accelerate the adoption of new innovations as people are more open to experiment. However to say that Cloud exist because we are in a recession would be a misnomer and maybe taken in a negative context. That was my point not that you were negative. Sorry if it came across differently.

I will do another post to clarify this. Thanks again for your support and as always please feel free to ping me anytime you have questions.

Best Regards,
Monty

[Jon Reed]

Monty, no problem. I enjoy being engaged in blog posts and blog discussions. However I think it's helpful to the reader to have more context...it's too easy to over-simplify someone's views which is why a thoughtful interaction is always better than a soundbite. Chris and I had a long talk about the nature of this space (on demand knowledge and consulting in SAP) and the point of his piece was not to summarize my views.

The point about the role of the recession in the cloud is somewhat interesting as a debate, but it may not be the most important point, because, as you have pointed out, these market changes are more about delivering a new kind of value - a value that customers would welcome in any economy. At any rate it's good that companies like yours are forging ahead with this and I wanted to make that comment as I didn't think in your original post that was relayed. Thanks for allowing me the clarification.