In a very short space of time ‘cloud’ has become a technology buzzword, finding its way into strategy and purchasing decisions across the globe.

Many have tried to define the Cloud. Perhaps the most comprehensive definition comes from NIST – the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the US.

NIST suggests that cloud computing has a range of characteristics including:

  • On demand self-service – the ability to increase your usage without human intervention
  • Resource Pooling – a multi-tenant environment where the user is disassociated from individual physical resources
  • Rapid Elasticity – the ability to rapidly increase usage with unlimited potential growth

NIST also looked at the deployment models for cloud computing, of which the most common are:

  • Private Cloud – for the use of multiple business units within a single enterprise, managed either internally or by a third party. It may exist on-premise or at a third party site
  • Public Cloud – for the use of any member of the general public. It exists on the site of the Cloud provider or their third parties.

Any attempt to arrive at consensus around the terminology of cloud computing is to be applauded, but the problem with this definition, in my opinion, is that it creates the impression that private cloud is for business use and that public cloud is for everything else.

It seems to suggest that multi-tenant environments can never be as secure as single instance environments and that simply is not true.

The key to unlocking the power of the cloud at the application level for business use is multi-tenancy.

I really believe that in 10-15 years’ time, 95% of all the applications used in a business will be delivered from a multi-tenant or public cloud via a browser. These public cloud solutions will have a number of common characteristics, which will include:

  • Really strong internal security practices
  • Total transparency of service performance
  • Rapid and continual product enhancements (20-30 releases a year)
  • Pre-integration out of the box with other leading Public Cloud solutions
  • Total leverage of the multi-tenancy network effect to drive new, more efficient processes in a cost effective and easy to use and deploy way.

You cannot achieve all of these together by creating private islands of cloud-based software that only support single or a handful of business customers. True Cloud is about making the world a better place to live, work and socialise, it’s not about playing on people’s fears. You can make a very strong argument to say that private cloud is actually just "hosting" by another name.

So beware the cynical existing vendor, jumping on the cloud bandwagon, labelling non multi-tenant on-premise based software and hardware in a data centre and as "private" cloud is muddying the water and holding back the market. It is understandable though, given that they know their current business model is now fundamentally flawed.

It’s also the reason why the "true" cloud vendors must work ten times as hard to show that the business world can trust their platforms, sometimes that means making difficult internal decisions to prioritise stability and security over sales and marketing and new product development.

Some vendors are doing a great job of this. Salesforce.com now has over 100,000 customers who are prepared to move incredibly valuable and sensitive customer data into a multi-tenant public cloud and it’s not just SMEs anymore that are signing up, it’s really big enterprises that have the budget to build their own lavish private clouds.

Fundamental to Salesforce’s success in attracting ever larger and more cautious companies into the true/public cloud is its focus on stability, availability, data security and transparency of how it is doing in all those areas.

These are just the opinions of the CEO of a relatively small but rapidly growing "true" cloud contact centre technology provider. You may well disagree and as long as you’re not pushing a FUD agenda (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt), I would be really interested to hear what you think.

Jonathan Gale is CEO of NewVoiceMedia, a provider of cloud-based contact centres services.