From Lori Lynn:
> I would not agree, however, that cloud computing means either that you are stuck with one size fits all contracts or with the end of customization of IT. For *any* vendor outsourcing agreement, the vendor begins the negotiation with a standard contract. The stress in that sentence should be the word "begins." When engaged in any outsourcing contract process (not just cloud outsourcing), the buyer must ensure that he/she understands the nature of what is being provided, the value AND risks of the services, and engages in negotiation to ensure the organization gets what it needs.
Patrick:
> The theory is that should yield lower costs. And just like commercial records centers, it takes IT out of the real estate business.
>
> This, folks, is why you ought to start thinking about information governance and where you fit in. The buses are loading up.
How many times have we discussed the economy of storing offsite versus onsite and when you do the match-up typically offsite wins. But when you look at the issue Patrick brought up of "Hostage Fees" the removal fee must be factored in. If it costs $6.00 per box to remove the box from a non-performing vendor to one who has an honest SLA they will meet; and, they pack this into the new contract, now maybe most of the economy is gone. But what about the $12.00 and $15.00 per box fees. Now you start to think, that the old cost analysis no longer works.
But management who is caught up in "Lowering the cost" jumps at the new vendor who says: "I will take all of your boxes at 50% of your current vendors price!" And they walk in and tell you "Meet your new vendor!" You never even have the chance to say "Did you limit the Hostage Fee in any way?" So in 2013 your storage costs drop to 50% but then in 2014, they go up 120% because that was a one time deal. "But feel free to leave the Hostage Fee is $16.00 per box." So now you are stuck.
So here is the Cloud private and public and they chant "Look at the money savings!" But they don't talk about what can go wrong. For example, here I sit at 1:20 AM backing up my software because my GPS on my Smart Phone crashed and lost half the maps. So I have to spend 3 hours rebuilding this. Who mentions all these rebuilds? What do they cost? And I bought this because the "Free"Apps kept failing. And don't even get me start on "Angry Birds!"
Plus these industries are IT, hardware suppliers, software suppliers are all incestuous. Each blames the other. No one mentions that half the reason for Virtual Servers is because so many of them just fail. So you need more and more over time to stay operational. Hostage fees will look like a back massage compared to the beating these guys can give you.
How long until Google says "You want your stuff back out the Cloud, well that is going to cost you $$$. And if you decide you don't like the disclosures, the lack of security and as always occurs, paying for the UPGRADES well look out. All the softwares start with one price and each upgrade is new money. It cost $30 more to upgrade to a system where I can customize my GPS. So Lori Lynn, telling the IT guy you want to customize is easier said than done.
Shoot I just paid to upgrade Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on my GPS and didn't know it??? I can't drive there!!!! But I did not have the option to leave them out and unless I paid more. So there is no hope on customizing with IT typically. They will offer to rewrite the software but then the fees start to mount and management sees the bill and buckles.
The problem is buying into cost saving as the god here. Management sees the low price and jumps on it but what did they really need?
I think Records Management should start with what the program should do and not enter a marriage that does not deliver the basics. As Patrick says Information Governance, compliance, the ability to present at discovery for upcoming litigation in a full and complete manner.
No jury can grasp the Cloud. I can prove there is a real God easier than I can prove that what is in the Cloud Public or Private has everything that should be in there.
From a college student who has lost his term paper, to the mail man who lost his tax return, we know how fragile data is. And how easy it is for a big corporation to manipulate.
Once you drive to the destination called cost, you have already lost your way. The cost savings only lasts until the next upgrade. The trend has already been established by offsite storage companies to try to extract from IT a Hostage Fee on the data in storage. They see this and say "HHHMMMMMMM??"
Wallis, if the private Cloud for the County is not backed up disk to tape or disk to disk to tape, then one fire could make it all go away. I testified in such a trial and a big corporation folded like a cheap tent when the issue of their shareholder and board and C-Level officer liability for allowing their data to be so easily destroyed in a server room fire (and their back up tapes were in the same room) and the various laws they run afoul of by allowing this to happen. They claimed they were backed up somewhere else but then they could not answer the question "How can you prove that everything on those servers and tapes are in fact exactly the same. Since the "mirror" no longer exists, how does one compare the reflections to see if they are absolutely the same. In the Virtual Server world a virus or bot that infects one can just as easily infect all.
Plus when you tell management, "Oh by the way we need to encrypt and use deduplication to really do this right and I need another $500,000 on each end." They respond "No way."
In our current environment, corporations are entering the Court Room as the bad guy. In our poor man versus the evil rich guy world, the corporation is viewed as a rich guy and it is tough to win so you settle. Ironically the Secret Service scandal and the GSA scandal are making tax payers realize that government is a villain too.
We live in a fractured country. Why does the media portray Romney as evil for making his money, yet the Kennedys and Kerry were not evil for being rich? Why does the media care how Romney spends his money and not how the government spends our tax dollars? But what kind of guy puts his dog on top of the car? What is he Checy Chase in "Vacation?" Whether you are a country government or Federal government or a rich corporation, you lose data and a jury is going to make you pay.
Records Managers can define the rules for records management or Information Governance and convince management of the best destination and then on the map to that destination look for cost cutting. Maybe Records Management is like a good GPS that shows us the right way home. But leave out the islands.......you can't drive there.
And with that my download is done until the next time my maps mysteriously disappear. Make that four hours lost to IT failures on a stupid $60.00 App.
Hugh Smith
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