Fulfilling expectations in the cloud

Retailers can teach resellers a thing or two about cloud, says Justin Fielder

Any retailer offering online or catalogue shopping knows the success of their business relies on being able to deliver goods to the customer quickly, while keeping a close eye on costs. In other words, fulfilment is fundamental to a retailer's business: making sure that it has goods available to buy, and that it is capable of efficiently dispatching them.

Most online retailers store goods in warehouses in a small number of central locations, from which they are then delivered to customers once purchased. The warehouses and the distribution network need to run smoothly for a business to succeed.

There are many parallels between this retail business model and the way thinking about IT is evolving as it moves into the cloud. When implementing a cloud strategy, businesses are looking to centralise their computing power to deliver efficiencies and provide a better experience for end users.

For example, many companies now use virtualisation to consolidate and pool their server resources, in much the same way that retailers use warehouses in central locations to provide economies of scale and ensure lower prices for consumers.

However, while retailers have also set up distribution networks to transport goods to their customers, there has been little discussion of how businesses can do the same with the applications they put in the cloud: how they can fulfil these services to the end user. This could be a fatal mistake.

Without a robust network to join end users to the services, applications and data in the cloud, companies risk missing out on many of the benefits the cloud promises. As such, reseller that can advise and guide them through this is one that will add real value.

Attempting to implement a cloud strategy by using a company's existing network infrastructure may not be appropriate, given the potential increase in traffic. This presents an opportunity for the channel.

Since each company may use a range of cloud solutions – some, like Google or Amazon, based on public cloud, others based on private cloud, and others still on a mixture of the two – it is a bit like trying to fit square pegs into round holes.

Instead, it is much better to retro-fit the network to each organisation's specific requirements, once it has fully developed and defined its cloud strategy.

Even the best-laid plans are not 100 per cent foolproof. A retailer may depend on the postal service, public roads, rail networks or its own vehicles to deliver orders. Each of these incorporates various risk factors, for which a business must be prepared.

And this is where the similarities between e-commerce and cloud computing end. With the correct technology in place, businesses can exercise far greater control over their own networks, thereby ensuring that end users receive the level of service they expect.

Adopt the retailer's mindset, and examine how networks need to change to best provide fulfilment for (internal) customers.

There are a number of options. End-to-end network management not only improves the planning and execution of any network rollout, but also means that a business can call on specialist networking expertise if and when it encounters any problems.

Similarly, built-in fault tolerance and back-up connections allow services, application and data to be made available, no matter what happens to the corporate network. This is something that certainly can't be said for a snow-blocked road or those cases when there are the wrong kind of leaves on a rail line, for example.

What this means is that resellers must not overlook the network as their clients look to move to the cloud. Retailers already know they could damage their reputation if the ability to fulfil orders is impaired, and businesses should apply this thinking to delivering cloud services to end users.

Companies and their IT suppliers have no excuse for a malfunctioning network, and this makes it all the more surprising that so few pay as much heed to their network as they do to, say, their virtualisation strategy.

For no matter how sophisticated the warehouse at the centre, a business won't see the benefits it expects if end users don't benefit from the convenience and flexibility of the cloud.

Justin Fielder is chief technology officer at Easynet Global Services