On-Premise IT: A Sinking Ship for MSPs?
Very few MSPs started in the cloud. Almost all of them started in a time of on-premise IT, but will those times soon be a thing of the past? According to J. Peter Bruzzese at Infoworld, the answer is a resounding “YES”. As far as he is concerned, the on-premise IT ship has sprung a huge hole, and all passengers should quickly make their way to those cloud-shaped life rafts hanging over the rails.
While my own assessment of IT departments’ futures isn’t quite as “doom and gloom” as Bruzzese’s, let’s take a closer look at how he arrived at his conclusions:
The first point he makes (as many do in cloud transition discussions) is cost. An increasing number of companies are realizing that they can save enormous amounts of money with the cloud as an operating expense, rather than purchasing their own, on site infrastructure. Most cloud services are able to cater to the company’s varying computing needs, thus eliminating the majority of excessive consumption costs. It is hard to argue that cloud based computing doesn’t save money (most of the time).
“Electricity went from an item on which a business focused half its time, attention, and labor to a simple utility it plugged into and paid for. Like it or not, the same is happening in IT.”
He is referencing Nicholas Carr’s “The Big Switch”, comparing the transition to the cloud to the electricity switch of a hundred years ago. Companies used to generate their own power, but once they could let someone else do that, and “plug in,” there was no need to do it in-house anymore.
“I recently logged into a Windows Azure portal, picked a template that included Windows Server 2012 and SharePoint, and spun it up in minutes while I went and got a cup of coffee. It was finished well before I returned.”
Cloud-based computing offers services essentially at the click of a mouse. The speed and ease of attaining and using these services is exponentially compelling in the case for cloud computing. And that is what the cloud already offers. As he mentions “That’s not the future – that’s the present”.
“Yes, in the next five years there'll be hybrid and convergence solutions teed up across the board to provide a transition from on-premises to cloud, but ultimately there'll be little on-premise IT left for admins.”
This, in my opinion, is his most important point, although I have a slightly different view. No one can deny a transition is happening and over the next few years most MSPs and IT departments will see a hybrid solution. However where he and I disagree is the brevity of it. On premise IT may disappear as we know it, however I think that is simply because those departments are going to need to evolve into more of a cloud services management type role. The hybrid solution he alludes to will last far longer than the next few years, and especially with the reluctance of certain companies to make the transition.
As MSPs, where do you envision IT departments in the next 5 or 10 years? Do you agree that on-premise IT is sinking quickly? Should IT professionals don their lifejackets? Be sure to share in the comment section.
