High interest in cloud as a DR model, but concerns over service
About two-thirds of organizations with just one data center are considering cloud services versus one-quarter of organizations with 2-3 data centers. Why? There is high interest in cloud as a disaster recovery (DR) model. Yet, concerns over service availability are driving the desire to implement multiple cloud service providers (CSP) as part of a DR plan. Unfortunately, CSP lock-in can make this a difficult goal.
CSP lock-in varies by type of cloud service. For Software as a Service (SaaS), proprietary data formats, applications and APIs lead to CSP lock-in. For Platform as a Service (PaaS) it’s the APIs and system components, including tool revision levels (e.g. Java 1.5 vs 1.6) and proprietary runtime environments, all tweaked to CSP specifications. And, even Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) has lock-in: Two CSPs running VMware does not guarantee compatibility, and different CSPs use different storage models, leading to incompatible storage semantics and structures.
What we need is cloud interoperability and there are two approaches to address this: Open standards and proprietary solutions. On the open standards front, there’s the Distributed Management Task Force’s (DMTF) Open Cloud Standards Incubator and the Open Virtualization Format (OVF). OVF provides a standard format for virtual machines and applications, facilitating portability across hypervisors and clouds. Proprietary approaches include companies such as RightScale and Elastra offering portability via an abstraction layer that isolates the CSP unique APIs and data structures.
The bottom line is cloud services are a DR option but one should assume CSP lock-in and plan accordingly.
