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As part of evaluating a cloud service understand what the advertised fee includes along with the terms of service. For example if the fee shown with an asterisk or qualifier than that cost is based on some volume of use or level of service. As with anything that is promoted on low price, look into what the fees are as more data is added or access increases. Also look into if the service at a particular fee is limited to a number of users or sessions (total and concurrent), amount of access using the service, how much network traffic is generated view information or sending data. For example Amazon S3 storage prices are often mentioned by people in cloud discussions, however when asked if they know about the charges for bulk import or export, fees for actually reading or writing your data or generating reports and for location based services I often get a blank stare or reaction of surprise. There is the assumption that for a given price of a service customer will get what they expect rather than what the service price actually includes. Amazon, as an example, has a graduated pricing model for services: as you increase the amount of data stored, pricing per GByte or TByte decreases (e.g. a volume discount) along with including some number of reads, writes and status or inquiries. Note that Amazon is only being used as an example as other service providers have different subscription plans, SLOs and SLAs to meet your different need. </p> <p class=text> Optional services include the ability to pick the availability level and the geographic region your data will reside. Knowing what geographic region is important for data or applications that for regulatory compliance cannot leave certain jurisdictional boundaries. Also check to see if in the case of a regional disaster your service provider as part of your subscription package will automatically move your data or access to a different region for a fee or free of charge. Additional fees may apply for different levels of service including faster storage and network access, improved data resiliency and availability or long term retention. A prospective company s financial and business stability should also be considered, including how data can be retrieved should the service cease to exist. As is the case with any emerging technology or solution provider, look for organizations that are flexible and who also have a growing list of active customers. In some situations a lower ala carte pricing model where you determine what components or services and availability is needed is a good option. For other situations a package that has a higher fee but is more inclusive can be a better value. For services offering either free or very low cost services including all you can consume, look into the terms of services to see what the SLAs and SLOs are particularly for information that you may need in a timely manner. </p> <p class=text> Additional considerations when evaluating cloud solutions or services include: </p> <ul class=text> <li>What management tools are included or supported </li> <li>Capabilities for moving data, applications and VMs into a cloud </li> <li>Security (logical and physical) along with information privacy </li> <li>Compliance and audit functionality reporting </li> <li>Interoperability with APIs or access tools (gateways, software) </li> <li>Metering, measurement, reporting and chargeback </li> <li>Service management including SLOs and SLAs </li> <li>Does the service maintain a copy of your data on multiple mediums in different locations </li> </ul> <h3>Vendor Lock-in: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly</h3> <p class=text> Do clouds and virtualization eliminate or move vendor or technology lock in? Is vendor lock in caused by vendors, their partners, products, protocols or by customers? In my opinion it can be due to all, some or a non-issue. Vendor and technology or service lock in is a situation where a customer becomes dependent or  locked in by choice or other circumstances to a particular supplier or technology. </p> <p class=text> What is the difference between vendor lock in, account control and stickiness? Generally speaking, lock in, stickiness and account control are essentially the same or at least strive to obtain similar results. Vendor lock in has a negative stigma but vendor stickiness is a new term, perhaps even sounding cool, and doesn t have the same (or any) stigma. Using a different term, such as sticky instead of vendor lock, can make the situation seem different or better. Is vendor lock in or stickiness a bad thing? No, not necessarily, particularly if you the customer are aware and still in control of your environment. </p> <p class=text> I have had different views of vendor lock in over the years. These have varied from when I was a customer working in IT organizations to being a vendor and later as an advisory analyst consultant. Even as a customer, I had different views of lock in, depending on the situation. In some cases lock in was a result of upper management having their favorite vendor which meant when a change occurred further up the ranks, sometimes vendor lock in would shift as well. On the other hand, I also worked in IT environments where we had multiple vendors for different technologies to maintain competition across suppliers. </p> <p class=text> When I was a vendor, I was involved with customer sites that were  best of breed while others were aligned around a single or few vendors. Some were aligned around technologies from the vendors I worked for and others were aligned with someone else s technology. In some cases as a vendor we were locked out of an account until there was a change of management or mandates at those sites. In other cases where lock out occurred, once our product was OEMd or resold by an incumbent vendor, the lockout ended. Some vendors do a better job of establishing lock in, account management, account control or stickiness compared to others. Some vendors may try to lock customers in, creating the perception that vendors lock customers in. There is also a perception that vendor lock in only occurs with the largest vendors, however I have seen this also occur with smaller or niche vendors who gain control of their customers keeping larger or other vendors out. </p> <p class=text> Vendor lock in or stickiness is not always the result of the vendor, var, consultant or service provider pushing a particular technology, product or service. Customers can allow or enable vendor lock in as well, either by intent via alliances to drive some business initiative or accidentally by giving up account control management. Vendor lock in is not a bad thing if it brings mutual benefit to the suppler and consumer. On the other hand, if lock in causes hardship to the consumer while benefiting the supplier, then it can be a bad thing for the customer. </p> <p class=text> Do some technologies lend themselves more to vendor lock in than others? Yes, some do. For example, often it is expensive hardware that is seen as being vulnerable to vendor lock in, however software is where I have seen a lot of stickiness. With virtualization solutions, vendor lock in could be around a particular hypervisor or associated management tools. </p> <p class=text> Locking or stickiness can occur in many different locations. Application software, databases, data or information tools, messaging or collaboration, infrastructure resource management (IRM) tools ranging from security to backup to hypervisors and operating systems to email. Additionally hardware has become more interoperable from servers, storage and networks to integrated marketing or alliance stacks, making it more vulnerable to lock in. Another opportunity for stickiness can be in the form of drivers, agents or software shims where you become hooked on a feature functionality that then drives future decisions. In other words, lock in can occur in different locations in traditional IT and in managed services, virtualization or cloud environments if you let it. </p> <p class=text> Issues about vendor, service, or technology lock-in concern: </p> <ul class=text> <li>Customers need to manage their resources and suppliers </li> <li>Conversely, technology providers need to get closer to influence customer thinking </li> <li>There can be cost with single vendor or technology sourcing due to loss of competition </li> <li>There can be a cost associated with best of breed or functioning as your own integrator </li> <li>There is a cost switching from vendors and or their technology </li> <li>Managing your vendors or suppliers may be easier than managing your upper management </li> <li>Vendors remove barriers so they can sell and set barriers for others </li> <li>Virtualization and cloud can be both a source for lock in as well as tools to help prevent it </li> <li>As a customer, if lock in provides benefits than it can be a good thing </li> </ul> <p class=text> Ultimately, it s up to the customer to manage their environment and thus decide if they will allow vendor lock in. Granted, upper management may be the source of the lock in and, not surprisingly, is where some vendors will want to focus their attention directly or via influence of high level management consultants. While a vendor s solution may appear to be a locked in solution, it does not become a lock in issue or problem until a customer allows it to be a lock in or sticky situation. Remember the IT golden rule: whoever controls the management tools (server, storage, networking, services, physical, virtual or cloud) controls the gold! &#9830; <br> <br> <b>Read more <a href="http://ittoday.info/ITPerformanceImprovement/index.htm"><i>IT Performance Improvement</i></a></b> </p> <!--DISCLAIMER NOTICE AND COPYRIGHT--> <p class="copyright"> <br> <br> Certain names and logos on this page and others may constitute trademarks, servicemarks, or tradenames of <a HREF="http://www.crcpress.com" TARGET="_parent">Taylor & Francis LLC.</a> Copyright &#169; 2008&#151;2011 Taylor & Francis LLC. All rights reserved. </font> </p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> <td width="300"> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> <table style="background-color:#E0E0D1;" cellpadding="10" margin="5" border="0" valign="top"> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan=2> <h3>This article was excerpted from:</h3> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td> <center> <a href="http://www.crcpress.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?isbn=9781439851739&AF=WAUER" target="blank"> <img src="http://www.ittoday.info/catalog/images/covers150w/K12375.jpg" Border=0> </a> </center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p class=text> The amount of data being generated, processed, and stored has reached unprecedented levels. Even during the recent economic crisis, there has been no slow down or information recession. Instead, the need to process, move, and store data has only increased. Consequently, IT organizations are looking to do more with what they have while supporting growth along with new services without compromising on cost and service delivery. </p> <p class=text> <a href="http://www.crcpress.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?isbn=9781439851739&AF=WAUER" target="blank"><b>Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking</b></a> looks at converging IT resources and management technologies for facilitating efficient and effective delivery of information services, including enabling of Information Factories. Regardless of your experience level, Schulz guides you through the various technologies and techniques available for achieving efficient information services delivery. </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <h3>About the Author</h3> <p class="text"> <b>Greg Schulz</b> is founder of the Server and StorageIO group (<a href="http://www.storageio.com" target="blank">StorageIO</a>), an independent IT industry advisory consultancy firm. He is also the author of the books <b><a href="http://www.crcpress.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?isbn=9781420086669&AF=WAUER" target="blank">The Green and Virtual Data Center</a></b> and <b>Resilient Storage Networks</b>. He is a popular <a href="http://www.storageioblog.com" target="blank">blogger</a> and also a fixture on <a href="https://twitter.com/storageio" target="blank">Twitter</a>. <br> </p> </p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </table> </body> </html>