Comfortable in the cloud

To understand what drives implementation partners to commit to Microsoft, eWorld also caught up with Cumulux Inc which helps clients implement Azure solutions. Ranjith Ramakrishnan, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Cumulux, explains what drives this tie-in: “We don't have any contractual obligation, but think about it; in the market place, especially in the enterprise segment, Microsoft Windows is a very big presence; large scale, years of existence, infrastructure and all that. So, who better than Microsoft?”

Ramakrishnan too echoes Krishnakishore's point on familiarity. “The whole cloud platform has been built on technology that enterprises are familiar with today.” Add to it the fact that a mental shift is necessary for clients to start turning to the cloud. “They have to pick a partner they trust, whose technology and frameworks they know and are familiar with so that the actual migration process is smoother.” So, going with a partner you haven't worked with earlier adds complexity to the change and that is a deterrent, he says.

Both of Cumulux' founders Paddy Srinivasan and Ramakrishnan spent at least 10 years in Microsoft before striking out on their own. Why did they choose the cloud environment to make a mark? “If you look at the emerging cloud computing trend, there is a huge demand projected by 2015. Even today there are a lot of enterprises and ISVs (independent software vendors) whose business constraints require them to move to the cloud – based on the economics and dealing with infrastructure management.”

He says that his company's entire focus is on the cloud. “When we started off, we worked with all cloud processes. We had done a large implementation on Salesforce.com for a movie production company. We have worked quite a bit on Amazon Web services. When Azure was announced, we were invited in there because Microsoft knew us well and vice versa.”

How ready are clients today in moving to a cloud environment? “The landscape has changed over the last two to three years. Two years ago, clients wanted to know more about the cloud. They would ask us what kinds of savings were possible. Now, they say that they should do something about it. “What are my options? What should I be looking for?” are common questions.

He says that it has become one of the top three priorities in almost everybody's charter to say ‘we have to have something in the cloud'. Seven years ago, no dent had been made here. Now, enterprises have been softened up.

And are cost savings big enough for clients to move – say in the region of 30-40 per cent? Says Ramakrishnan, “It depends on the type of applications. We are now seeing applications that are on the periphery of the enterprise. But as you come to the core, you certainly need to make some investment. So, look at the total cost of ownership (TCO).” In the initial stages, a client needs to maintain existing applications as well as invest in cloud applications. At some point, when existing apps die out and operations for newer applications are better, client TCO will go down. “It is hard; but you have to invest now to save five years from now for the subsequent 10 years.”

That is why, he says, it is important for cloud platform vendors to help pick applications that will be widely successful right now, so that that would reinforce the fact that to be successful, you need to go invest now. If you start by saying ‘I am going to take that core banking application and try to migrate that', it would fail.”

The cloud is gaining acceptance more quickly in some segments. He cites the example of a large retail food chain. In addition to cost savings on infrastructure, it wanted consistency of customer experience. “Their argument is, they have done enough to make the food experience consistent. So, they really can't have one franchisee running five applications while another wants only one. They turn to the cloud for this consistency where all franchisees can access all applications, all at a lower TCO!

Interestingly, the cloud also helps blur the line between software services and software products for a provider such as Cumulux. Says Ramakrishnan, “As an ISV, I am not just building an application and throwing it over there. I need to be able to service and manage it and I need to have operations and all that.”