What type of cloud?

[SimonMorris]

Hello - long time, no blog..

Preamble

Along with the majority of the Internet connected world I was presented with a new User Interface for Google Reader yesterday. Since the launch of Google+, the majority of products have been given an UI overhaul.

This morning my personal Gmail account had the same treatment. My post today isn't really about these changes to Google products, but their communication made me think about the different types of Cloud providers that organisations and individuals can use.

Google, I think, knew that the UI changes would have equal numbers of lovers and haters. It certainly didn't take me too long to find the Twitchfork mob protesting against the changes (10,000 users sign petition / Ex-Google Product Manager trashes the design / There's even a #occupyGoogleReader hash tag!)

The changes were announced, with typical Google understatement and not a lot of notice. One part of their announcement on the Google Reader blog jumped out of the page at me.

We hope you'll like the new Reader (and Google+) as much as we do, but we understand that some of you may not. Retiring Reader's sharing features wasn't a decision that we made lightly, but in the end, it helps us focus on fewer areas, and build an even better experience across all of Google.

If you decide to stay, then please do send us your feedback on today's set of improvements. Google+ is still in its early days, after all, and we're constantly working on improvements. If, however, you decide that the product is no longer for you, then please do take advantage of Reader's subscription export feature. Regardless where you go, we want to make sure you can take your data with you.

Wow - the message is clear, we want you to stay with the product but we understand if these changes drive you away.

In that announcement they also announced the retirement of a few long standing sharing features. I read on Twitter that some people had projects that relied on those features in development that now have to be shelved. I also wonder how many 3rd party iPhone and iPad apps have to be rewritten to accomodate the change.

Which type of cloud?

Anyway, I'm not writing to criticise Google - I actually like the new UI - but their hardline stance on features, functionality and UI is a factor that organisations should take into account when considering them as a cloud service provider.

From what I understand business users of Google Apps have some limited control over the new UI rollout, but they will have to adopt it sooner or later. For large organisations with thousands of users on Gmail I wonder what the knockon costs for support are for this change.

We have a very limited taxonomy for the different types of Cloud providers today:

• SaaS - Software as a Service
• PaaS - Platform as a Service
• IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service

These definitions don't really describe the amount of control that the user has over how the system changes. Both ServiceNow and GMail fall into the SaaS category, but you wouldn't expect ServiceNow to be as hardline over removing functionality - dramatically changing the UI etc.

We may offer features and upgrades, but we couldn't wouldn't present a fait de compli to users in the same way that Google can.

Another level of categorisation of Cloud providers may be needed - one that describes the amount of control the subscriber has over changes and versioning of their environment.

Another differentiator between Google Apps and ServiceNow is that you can configure as opposed to customise Google products.

Configuration involves changing a set, limited number of parameters whereas the Customisation that can be done on ServiceNow, for example, involves complex integrations, scripting and development. By it's nature much harder to predictably upgrade.

I was hoping to end this post with some new terminology for you, but I'm not sure the configure v customise is a complete enough distinction.

Your thoughts welcome in the comments!