Originating Author: David Floyer
Will IT organizations be able to install the Amazon Simple Storage Service to run on their own infrastructure? Will Google File System come shrink-wrapped? In the topsy-turvy world of consumerization the answer is probably not.
The economic pressures on companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google to provide the best possible services for billions of end-users and millions of small companies means that they are unlikely to slow down and produce a product for thousands of large companies who will be reluctant to allow the traditional revenue streams that fund and drive these technologies. The best that large IT departments (say government departments) might expect is that a software services provider will provide an exclusive data center and network.
Is it likely that some as yet unthought-of alliance between a Telco, NetApp, Symantec and CISCO could combine skills to produce and market such solutions to large customers? Maybe in the short term, but as the consumer-led companies add more functionality, security, and integration to their offerings, and the software economies of scale kick-in, it will be an unfair fight.
This factor-of-ten price difference between public and private storage services will lead to significant tensions between IT and operation departments over the next few years, similar to previous tensions produced by microprocessors in mainframe shops.
Action item: CIOs should base organizational priorities on the reality that consumerization of storage is an unstoppable train. They should organize to embrace and qualify such services, and be proactive in showing where they are appropriate and where they are not. Strategies that just point out the inadequacies and missteps of consumer storage service providers will ensure that IT departments are seen as part of the problem.