When a data center needs to update, it will. When a SaaS provider has a new version to release, it’ll release. While it is true that agreements can be reached to help alleviate some of these problems, many companies aren’t large enough to either drive their provider’s direction or support a custom solution.
This is one example of where agility is needed outside of software development.
First off, I am a cloud computing fan. I spent many years working IT at medium-sized companies. They tend to fall into an interesting middle ground when it comes to IT. In small companies, the company knows they need to pay outsiders to support their internal team. Large companies generally have enough people to accomplish what is needed, and deep knowledge of having to farm out things that are too far outside their area of expertise. In many medium companies, especially ones which have recently grown from small, they tend to believe the staffing levels can handle everything, and the budget cannot. Of course, this is a generalization based on my experience and your mileage may vary.
Generally, people in the Agile coaching world are working with software teams who are building services. In this case, agility is about responding rapidly to customer needs, not locking in planning too far out, and related concepts. When I look at agility through my IT Operations background, it’s surprisingly similar. Your customer is the business you work with, not an external buyer. This is exactly the case for many teams writing line of business software for companies that need something an off-the-shelf package cannot provide. Preventing planning lock-in is similar to the need for an Ops team to be flexible in responding to changing conditions.
Cloud computing requires agility from more than just the Ops department though. Any internal software teams working with a SaaS provider knows they need to be ready to update API calls on a whim from the provider. Access to something may be lost by a security update or a new feature release. Often a solution created by an internal team will be replicated by the SaaS provider in the future but implemented in a much different way requiring retooling by the internal team.
It goes beyond IT as well. The accounting team may need to learn a new report building interface with only a month of warning. An HR team may need to jigger their job posting workflow unexpectedly. Every department in the company may need to respond to changing conditions as the customer of a cloud provider.
One remaining question might be, why? Why do we need to respond to changes from our provider? In short, because they are changing in response to their customer’s needs. Chances are, especially for a medium-sized company, you are not the only customer approaching them with ideas for improvement and needs for your business. Other companies are doing the same, and they need to move forward with what makes the most sense for them as a provider, not for you as a single customer. That SaaS provider or cloud hosting company is trying to amalgamate their entire customer base into one or two avatars whose needs they base their decision making on. If you don’t fit one of those, you may be left needing some agility of your own.
I’d love to help your team learn to respond to change faster, whether it’s changed they instigated or are responding to. Contact me for a free initial consult on what I can do to help your team go further faster.
Cloud computing has a myriad of advantages for your business. Someone else in charge of your infrastructure means you need less expertise in house allowing your employees to concentrate on what matters most to your business. It not all roses and kittens though. A provider won’t necessarily be on the same upgrade schedule as you, especially if you’re used to a very conservative approach.
