One time, I sat in a meeting with one of my supervisors. After reviewing our IT
architecture, I recommended a few security improvements and expressed concerns
about data availability. He responded, "But it's in the cloud. Isn't it automatically
backed up and secure?"
Unfortunately, many others believe the same: if they move to the cloud, all their
downtime and security problems would be resolved. However, to make the best use
of those features, you must know how to manage them. But instead of diving into
how to manage cloud technologies (I recommend taking a course in managing your
cloud tool), we should first ask: which cloud provider should you choose?
While AWS currently dominates cloud technologies, other cloud providers are emerging. Azure is beginning to close the gap, as is Google Cloud.
While watching a football game with my wife, I saw an advertisement for Hewlett Packard (HP) Enterprise cloud services. There are hundreds of other cloud providers as well.
Because the cloud is powerful and cost effective, companies are increasingly investing in cloud resources, with AWS at the head.
Amazon's Jeff Bezos said: "AWS had the unusual advantage of a seven-year head
start before facing like-minded competition. As a result, the AWS services are by far
the most evolved and most functionality-rich." Indeed, AWS services has a variety of
products ranging from simple database and compute services to Machine Learning
and "Quantum Technologies". There are over 200 product offerings from AWS (I
counted 209 today). I believe AWS's main competitor is Azure. Last October,
Microsoft Azure won a $10 billion cloud contract for the US Federal Government,
despite AWS's advanced features. While I have used Google Cloud's platform for
accessing their APIs, I do not believe they are at the same level as Azure and AWS.
(But if they are, I would love to hear your thoughts) Here at Xantie, we use Azure for
our cloud services.
Why do we use Azure? Considering our suite of tools and services, Azure lends itself
well to the type of work we do for our clients. One of our stellar employees said the
following about using Azure to work with a client:
“We created a customized Power BI dashboard for them. Because we host their data
on an Azure SQL Server, we can use Direct Query mode instead of Import for their
data. This means any updates to their data would automatically update the client's
dashboards - no scheduled refreshes needed. We then integrated a Power App
within the Power BI dashboard for them to update their data, and see the change
affect their visuals in real time. Access to the dashboard and to the database are
controlled by various security features, including Azure Active Directory. Azure
makes managing their data efficient and secure.”
If you are currently using Microsoft tools, Azure is likely the way to go. If you need
something more rich and powerful, and you have the resources to do it, then AWS
may be your best bet. No matter which cloud tool you use, you will need to manage
it well. Cloud technologies on their own do not solve problems; people solve
problems with help from technology.
What do you think about Cloud technologies? Do you prefer one over another? Let
us know! We would love to hear your insights.