Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Contact points for the end user
: As mentioned before in many cases the end user
can obtain the service from the one provider who also builds the whole solution.
Examples of utility computing providers are the “traditional” players like IBM, HP,
SUN and newer companies like Amazon, Flexiscale, GoGrid, MediaTemple and
Mosso. They provide a high availability platform which is flexible and scalable,
and consists of a set of services to create and manage the virtual servers or applica-
tions that run on them. Some providers also allow the creation of applications using
programming languages (for example Google App Engine).
Challenges and considerations:
The decision to outsource IT related activities is
always critical. The most common implication of the utility computing, for the end
user, is that the activities commonly performed inside the organizational boundaries
are performed externally. Several issues are worth of careful consideration. First
of all, what kind of activities can be performed outside the organizational bounda-
ries? For example, national data protection laws can prohibit sending certain kind of
information outside the country of origin, and/or the end-user may need to consider
very carefully what kind of information it is best to keep inside its own organiza-
tion (e.g. issues related to core competences). In both cases, the data confidentiality
and security are of high importance. Secondly, the licensing issues may also require
careful consideration. In the case that end-user wants to use commercial software
in the external Grid infrastructure it needs to be clarified that the existing licensing
agreements are not violated. Thirdly, end user has to evaluate carefully the provid-
er's capacities and capabilities to provide the service (e.g. reliability, scalability, the
maturity of the technology), and the service level agreements (SLAs) need to be
negotiated carefully, by taking into account business needs, technical requirement,
enforceability and redress.
6.3.3 Software as a Service (External Deployment)
SaaS makes software accessible according to a service/utility model. Users don't
need to purchase, install and configure a software package in order to have it avail-
able on their system as and when they want to use it. They simply access, typi-
cally over a browser, the software that is pre-prepared and ready for use at some
remote location. Traditional software licenses are usually replaced by the agree-
ments between users and software providers. These agreements, besides specifying
the information included in a traditional software license (eg duration, price, etc.),
might also contain information about the software's efficiency, reliability, accessi-
bility, etc. SaaS is a good solution for both large organizations and SMEs, and the
reasons to choose SaaS are many, e.g. to keep the TCO
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light, to access the software
without paying the fixed licenses, or to complete on-premise licenses with SaaS in
the occasional peaks. However, many of the current pricing models are designed for
deployments for SMEs, and they break down, from a cost perspective, in large-scale
3
The concept of TCO is used as a financial estimate to help decision makers to determine direct
and indirect costs of a product or a system. In computer and software industry TCO is used to
estimate the financial impact of deploying an information technology product (hardware and
software) over its life cycle (Wikipedia 2009d).
