BBC IT head warns of 'nesting' cloud SLAs
BBC IT head warns of 'nesting' cloud SLAs
The head of IT strategy at the BBC, Paul Boynes, has warned businesses to beware of questionable service level agreements with cloud providers when starting out with cloud computing.
Speaking at the Cloud Computing World Forum, Boynes said that there is a risk that some providers may lock people into contracts and deliver poor contract management and standards.
The BBC itself is very interested in cloud computing, according to Boynes. He pointed out that the broadcaster requires more and more data storage space – totalling a number of petabytes. He said that although the organisation is tempted by the technology, the industry remains immature. He stated, “One thing to consider is what I call ‘nesting’. A Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering you might be able to go out and buy may actually be relying on Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) being provided by another vendor.”
He went on to add that when making a deal with a SaaS provider, there could be even more levels of outsourcing, making the notion of controlling SLAs rather difficult to achieve.
“How confident can you be that your provider of the SaaS product, which may be a small vendor, understands the implications of those layered SLAs?” explained Mr Boynes.
He went on to warn about vendors locking people into contracts and introducing their own standards to ensure they achieve the level of certification required to win contracts. Boynes explained, “That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but before you buy into a vendor standard, just think about what open standards are being developed.”
Businesses looking to move services into the cloud, should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network.
