Cloud computing experts are often extremely talkative and can’t wait to tell you how the cloud will help YOU. Ian Moyse, a renowned cloud expert, caught our attention a few months ago by his participation in many major IT events held in the UK. He is also a keynote speaker and many of Ian’s presentations can be found online. We were interested in the changes in cloud computing that Ian has observed in the last decade; That’s right. Ian has been part of the transition to the cloud and has seen it from various perspectives, including anti-spam security. “Stopping spam is easy, making sure you don’t stop good mail too, that’s the hard part.” Here is our full interview with Ian Moyse:

How are you using the cloud?

“Personally, I use the cloud for a variety of reasons. I use mobile access to data and files using a combination of Box.net, Dropbox, and Microsoft Skydrive. Why not? I get so much more storage for free and hassle-free as it’s all simple and widely accessible, I use cloud email and access it from multiple devices, I have private cloud storage at home using Pogoplug, and I use Google Apps to share personal documents when needed. that I’m using a system or application without realizing it’s a cloud, or caring until I stop and think about how they’re doing it. It’s becoming second nature to just use what works and makes your daily life easier , and with so many software-as-a-service offerings that are immediately accessible through an entry-level freemium model, I think we’ll see an increase in this thought pattern just h Do so as this type of offering becomes more prevalent. In business, of course, we use our own CRM workbooks in the cloud, our email is hosted on Exchange, and we use Google Apps. and Box.net daily. It has allowed us to grow quickly and focus on the work at hand, not running the infrastructure for our own business and ending up in break/repair mode. We operate much more efficiently than I’ve seen in other non-cloud businesses, and we certainly have more availability and an easier life when we’re on the go.”

What is your opinion on the main cloud providers? I mean Amazon’s AWS, Windows Azure, others.

“The fact that we have such major vendors promoting and providing open cloud platforms for everyone to use, and invest so heavily in, shows where the market is and where it is going. Amazon has led the way and Microsoft has led the way. continues. As one lowers prices, we see the others react. This is good for customers that rely on these platforms and for customers that they serve in the cloud, as this will drive more affordable solutions and innovation in our industry, which in turn stimulates activity, buying, revenue, and therefore employment and other benefits We will continue to see more innovation and new companies emerging that offer solutions from these platforms more affordable and quicker to market.Those seeking solutions should also consider that there are also other localized providers available that can participate effectively. iva and don’t limit your choice to just the big names in the cloud. Microsoft Azure has outages, several of which are caused by expired security certificates at Microsoft. What the big names are doing is setting the stage and raising awareness, driving market acceptance and the opportunity for more than themselves.”

How has cloud computing changed the enterprise security landscape?

“The cloud has changed the battlefront in many aspects of security. It has allowed defenders to have much more power and security intelligence at hand and in real time to combat the increasing volume and velocity of threats coming from Internet It has enabled new Malware detection methods to take place as seen in the FireEye and Webroot approaches and has bought new cloud solution providers and with the beauty of the cloud comes the fact that many of these Cloud security solutions can be used and provided by the mid-market and smaller businesses, allowing them to benefit from the same levels of protection as the business customer, after all, they are under attack from the same threats. Previously, many security based products were, by definition, too expensive and complex to implement for the average business therefore these smaller businesses ( which make up the bulk of the market) were left with less than adequate protection. Now they can pay for and use easy-to-ignite, highly accurate and protective cloud-based security to protect their business assets and employees.”

Any specific recommendations when it comes to server security and monitoring in a cloud environment like Windows Azure? (As well as reminding Microsoft to renew their SSL certificates on time…)

“I think it’s up to providers here to realize that providing a cloud service has much higher expectations than people in network solutions, customer expectations are higher, SLAs need to be higher as one of the The value propositions of the cloud and the ability to deliver to it demands that you ensure a robust, accurate, and responsive monitoring system. does well, availability, resiliency, security, and flexibility are much higher.”

Storage and server requirements can grow exponentially as companies begin to aggregate data. How do server monitoring tools keep up with these demands?

“Of course, as cloud server implementations grow, so does the industry around them looking for new tools and approaches. There are a plethora of server monitoring tools available with a growing market bringing more features and endurance for less price. While historically we would have expected a shift to the CAs, BMCs, NetIQs of this world, there is now a wider selection of newer names to consider. Appdynamics, for example, and Nimsoft (now owned by CA), VMware’s Hyperic, and solutions like Abiquo, which don’t just offer management tools.”

Can you tell us about the most interesting web scalability project you’ve been a part of? (Number of servers, data/traffic handled, etc.)

“I guess the most interesting and challenging space in the cloud for unpredictability was email security. Stopping the dreaded spam, denial-of-service attacks, and unpredictable blasting of incoming and outgoing customer emails. (now the foundation of Websense hosted security platforms) who created one of the first software-as-a-service email filtering solutions. it’s easy, making sure it doesn’t stop any of the good mail too, that’s the hard part.Customers demanded not only blocking spam, phishing emails and the like, but also the consistency of sending the good stuff accurately. The pressure was always on that changing cloud email filtering services is easy and only requires a change of password. e MX records so customers can actually move relatively quickly and easily in the event that a provider fails to maintain high standards. The malicious email market in those days was also a pioneer for attackers, so we saw many more changes in their behavior and developed new detection approaches as the market matured. Today, cloud email security is pretty standard and many players in the market have been acquired by larger providers like Messagelabs by Symantec, Blackspider by Websense, and more recently Isheriff by Total Defense and Maildistiller by Proofpoint. We also see hosted email providers including it as a standard service (Google uses its acquired Postini and Microsoft uses its acquired Frontbridge services).”

Any projects that you would like to promote or trends that you are particularly excited about?

“The cloud is driving an incredible opportunity for innovators and while there are some big brands that dominate the relevant markets, like platforms, security, email and CRM, for example, there remains a huge opportunity for other players. Let’s take CRM, for example where Salesforce and Microsoft are two big brands with deals are not right for everyone and are often too complex and expensive for small and medium businesses At Workbooks we have innovated and see many customers choosing us over of these systems and they move to us, discovering that we have delivered something that they didn’t have at a very low cost The cloud allows more level competition to play and will drive greater choice for customers and a reduction in cost that empowers smaller companies themselves to use computing power more effectively to enable them to compete more effectively in their own given markets.”

How does your team monitor servers to make sure you’re providing reliable service to your customers?

“We have remote server monitoring for all components of our service across multiple data centers, allowing us to identify failures before they affect customers and respond quickly when needed to any hardware failure that can happen to anyone, even to a cloud provider. The key is that we have the resiliency and hardening in the system that most customers couldn’t afford to build themselves, and if any component fails, it’s moved to another device, giving us time to respond and replace without customers being affected.In fact, for a good period of time they have delivered 100% to customers, a feat few can boast of with CRM and contact management solutions on the market. hardware replacement and reconfiguration got your system up and running again.”

What are the challenges you face when scaling from a few cloud servers to hundreds of servers? What are your thoughts on these challenges?

“If you laid the foundations right and planned to scale from the start, as any good, experienced cloud provider will have done, then this is not a problem. Unfortunately, there are many in the cloud space who have undertaken to build their first hosted solution and ‘don’t know what they don’t know’ and they may have to redesign or redesign the line, which becomes really difficult once you’ve reached a certain scale, keep holding on to your foundations, and find a reboot too complex, It’s a costly and lengthy project. This is the third cloud system our founders have successfully built in over 14 years. Finding a cloud provider that has the inherent expertise at its core is a great asset to choosing what customers can do for longevity.

Ian Moyse, Sales Director of Workbooks.com, a cloud CRM provider, has over 25 years of experience in the IT industry, serving on the Eurocloud UK Board of Directors and the Cloud Industry Forum Governing Board (CIF), listed in the top 25 of the SMB Nation 150 Channel Influencers Worldwide list in both 2012 and 2013 and named by TalkinCloud as one of the Top 200 Cloud Channel Experts in the World in 2011.