Few are even questioning the Public Cloud...is that smart?

Like many things in the US these days, intelligent discourse is pretty hard to find.  Politics aside, if someone holds a different opinion than another, they tend to be either minimized or just ignored.  That's not a smart way to be...it's from differing opinions that we learn.

I find discussions about the Public Cloud follow the same pattern.  If you have any opinion other than the Public Cloud is the ONLY place to run your workloads, you're branded 1) a dinosaur, 2) someone who clearly doesn't get it, or 3) an idiot.  

I beg to disagree.  Having an educated opinion used to be valued, and in my world, it still is.  I remember the line my Mom (and probably everyone's Mom) would say, "If everybody jumped off the roof, would you jump too?"  In other words, don't just do what everyone else is doing, because there's no guarantee that all the others are right.  Another way to think of this is "don't be a lemming".  Think for yourself.

Which brings us to the Public Cloud.  Let me start by saying that the Public Cloud appears to be an excellent option FOR SOME WORKOADS.  The operative point in that statement is the "for some workloads" part.  Not all workloads are suited for the Public Cloud, for a variety of reasons.  Maybe the Cloud is actually fog. ​

I think organizations should  evaluate where your workloads should run based on three types of factors; operational, organization, and financial.  Clearly, just looking at the financial facts don't seem to be preventing many from moving workloads to the Public Cloud, despite the significant difference in cost.  I don't know about you, but if someone came to me with an offer for me to pay double in the Public Cloud than what I could do with my own infrastructure on-premises, I'd definitely say no.  

It's worth realizing that business moves in cycles.  What seems like a great idea today might not be a great idea in a few years.  Especially when you've doubled your cost.

Gartner Group and other thought leader groups are out there touting the Public Cloud as the savior to all that ails your IT organization.  Did you ever stop and think who pays Gartner Group and others like them for such glowing recommendations?  It's two groups...users who think Gartner Group is smarter than they are and the other are the vendors who benefit.  To be so bold...maybe things are a bit slanted?

Again, I'm not saying Public Cloud is bad...it's not.  But neither is on-premises.  Here's a check for you...since Public Cloud held the promise of eliminating the "hassle" of managing your own IT infrastructure, how many jobs have been eliminated in your organization by the Public Cloud?  How many infrastructure guys are doing higher level tasks?  Probably none, because you need someone to manage an additional infrastructure now.

I think overall you have to be smart.  Do the homework.  Do an evaluation of ALL of the options using all of the factors.  Only then will you really know that you made the right decision.  If it comes up Public Cloud, great..do Public Cloud.  If it comes up on-premises, run the workload on-premises.

Feel free to comment.  All intelligent discourse welcome here...

---