Clouds, Clouds, Clouds

by lg0p89

Disclaimer:  This may or may not be based on an actual incident.  All references are purely coincidental in nature, etc.  [That should satisfy the legal department.]

Here we go...

In a small community bank, its assets and resources are very important.  Without certain services, the bank simply can't function.  For instance, the systems tracking deposit account transactions are vital.  Curiously enough the bank's clients may actually want to know their balances.  This is tough to believe!  [Sarcasm.]

As they arrive at the bank and finish their respective transactions, there is a clear document trail.  The Feds and Regulators would have it no other way.  These tickets detailing the specific transaction are fed through a reader, verified for correctness and accuracy, and entered into the system.  The client's account is then updated.

All you as the client see is yourself handing the check to the teller and the teller handing you $20.  It seems awfully simple.

The bank I am presently, gainfully employed at used to do this transaction processing function in-house with bank employees.  Senior management believed they could save a few dollars by outsourcing this.  After all, there would be no employees associated with this function.  There would also be no overhead, health insurance, paid time off, or other direct labor expenses.  The pertinent service would simply be out there in the cloud.

With the numbers massaged around enough, it did appear as such.

Here Comes the First Shoe

All was fine and dandy until one of their servers failed.  It just happened that this specific server had the bank's data.  As it turns out, there was an incredible lack of redundancy, much to the bank's displeasure.  We were down for a full day's business.

The clients could not get their balances, make online payments, etc.  After many apologies and future promises of service, they were up again, which was great news.  This should have been the end of it.  Not so fast...

The Other Shoe Drops

The Romans declared to beware of the Ides of March.  The system went down again.  This time, however, the system was down for 1.5 days.  This is generally [and definitely was] not acceptable on any plant or level of reality.  This was no fun for anyone involved.  There were still more promises from the provider.

Based on this second failure, senior management elected to take a closer look into bringing the service in-house... again.  After a relatively short review, they decided to do this.  There were clear cost savings and much more control over the process and equipment.

Lessons Learned/Re-Learned; or, Why the Cloud is Still a Bad Idea for Small- to Medium-Sized Businesses

First, I do apologize for the run-on section title.  The reasons for not adopting the cloud in certain instances are ample.

1.)  There is a loss of control.  Granted, the service provider is contracted for the service, but what if something out of the ordinary happens?  What happens if they were to file bankruptcy?  Good luck getting access to your data within a week or two.  When attorneys get involved, it seems as though simple requests get bogged down.

2.)  You don't really know the condition of the service provider's equipment.  I don't know anyone in a small business who initially or regularly visited or visits the service provider to check on the equipment's condition.  The client, or in my case the bank, solely goes on trust and what the sales representative claims.  The equipment could be relatively new or ancient, held together with duct tape on the server racks.  You quite frankly just don't know.  They may or may not have a rotation/replacement plan in place for the servers.  The contracts generally don't have a specific equipment condition clause.

3.)  If the system goes down, no way to know for certain how long it will not be available.  Granted, you have a contract, but what if a hurricane, for example, takes out the regional data center?  Without redundancy, you are not likely to have a quick, readily available back-up ready to go in a few days.  Even if the contract has a "Time is of the Essence" clause saying you will have an outage of service of no greater than 18 hours, this still may not happen.  Granted, you could sue, but this may not help with your bruised view in the community.

At the end of the day, there may be the illusion that this is better, but due to the uncertainty we face every day and a lack of control, the cloud may not be the best choice for time sensitive operations but may be better suited for backing up family vacation photos and cooking recipes.

In-House: 2, Cloud: 0