The rest of your comment reads in defense of the cloud, something I was not attacking. The data for ransom may be FUD*, but hosted LOB apps with shared databases is a very, very real security concern. But I digress.

Cloud is a buzzword; it encompasses everything from Mozy to EC2, Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services to co-loc servers. Which is why distinctions must be drawn when discussing the cloud.

As far as managed services and SaaS for SMB – which is what I was addressing – it isn’t the revolutionary future of business IT that we all must act on immediately!. It’s simply the direction computing is moving.

SBS businesses will integrate the cloud, but the benefits at the enterprise level aren’t necessarily worthwhile for them. And, most importantly, they won’t all be retiring all of their servers for a monthly SaaS bill any time soon, which is what they’re being told.

* it happens. and is more likely to happen with off-site storage. that’s all.

The line can’t be servers vs. services, as enterprises of EVERY size manage application stacks on top of the physical (and virtual) layer that is both internally and externally present in their environment.

Email, sharepoint, file management, line-of-business applications, databases, VoIP, whatever, are all just applications or services running on infrastructure.

If I can add a virtual shim in between these applications (and OS) and the infrastructure it runs on, and then dynamically expand the resources when needed, when they require them, maybe even provision new resources, this is another value add of a virtualized environment. This isn’t Cloud though.

The SMB rarely has the scale to leverage all of the features, as well as the scale required to quickly deploy additional resources, to make this a financially sound venture, but large enterprises, and service providers do. This will be the first divide, the private and public clouds. We’re already seeing it. EC2, vCloud Service Providers, and others, are building environments to leverage shared resources, in a multi-tenant environment, leveraging scale of resources to overcome purchasing power of the SMB, to leverage enterprise level functionality. The enterprise, like MMC, the company I just left, is also making steps to roll out massive scalable internally oriented clouds, with their customers their internal assets.

When it’s all said and done, if there is no competitive strategic value of a function, why is the SMB doing IT? Most don’t manage their own PBX platform anymore, but leverage a managed service (hosted VoIP, quest, mediacom), and you can see that this has now become more of a commodity offering.

How is buying hardware, managing an OS, loading software, doing backups internally, recovering, managing hardware contracts any different? What strategic value does this provide?

Even backup software has moved over to the “service” catalog. Mozy is a great example of this. software and service bundled to the end user / smb to leverage a larger shared external infrastructure.

Servers, desktops, and other services aren’t any different.

A virtual server to load my custom “value add” application on, a managed exchange environment, a managed virtual desktop environment, a managed end to end VoIP solution. All easily scalable. On demand. This is the “cloud”.

Re: Data for Ransom and Data security. This argument is bigger than understanding what cloud is, a conversation I’d be glad to have. A short response though, It’s FUD. Go ahead and insert whatever conversation you have with your customers when you sell mozy here, and then add on what you do when you help a customer port a phone number.

Cloud isn’t a buzzword. It’s here.

@DMJoe

Script Name: Apple Crapple
Script Description: Apple Crapple
Removes itunes updater and Quicktime Task from startup and removes quicktime icon from desktop. Kills bonjour service

IF True
THEN
Delete File – (Continue on Fail)
Parameter 1 : %SYSTEMROOT%\TASKS\AppleSoftwareUpdate.job
OS Type : 0
Execute Shell Command – (Continue on Fail)
Parameter 1 : “C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe” -remove
Parameter 2 : 0
OS Type : 0
Delete Registry Value – (Continue on Fail)
Parameter 1 : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\iTunesHelper
OS Type : 0
Delete Registry Value – (Continue on Fail)
Parameter 1 : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Quicktime Task
OS Type : 0
Execute Shell Command – (Continue on Fail)
Parameter 1 : ERASE “%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Desktop\QuickTime Player.lnk”
Parameter 2 : 0
OS Type : 0
Execute Shell Command – (Continue on Fail)
Parameter 1 : ERASE “%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Apple Software Update.lnk”
Parameter 2 : 0
OS Type : 0
Write Script Log Entry
Parameter 1 : Apple Software Update Disabled
OS Type : 0
ELSE
Write Script Log Entry
Parameter 1 : Apple Software Update Not Scheduled
OS Type : 0