By Erik Gfesser in media query — Feb 15, 2021

Media Query Source: Part 32 - TechTarget (US digital magazine); Do you need a data warehouse for business intelligence?

TechTarget (US digital magazine)
Business intelligence & data warehouses
Usage of public cloud versus on premises
Cost is only one factor to consider

My responses ended up being included in an article at TechTarget (February 12, 2021) entitled "Do you need a data warehouse for business intelligence?". Above image from cited article.

(No transcript available for the verbal responses I provided to a media outlet on January 19, 2021.)

Media: Enterprises are moving further into cloud, though many organizations still have data centers. What role is the data center playing in BI today? How has that changed and how is it changing? What should organizations consider regarding their infrastructure architecture when it comes to BI? How do you know you have "the right" architecture at any point in time?

Note that this article marks the third time I've been quoted as the result of a phone call rather than an email exchange, and unfortunately, it is also the third time I've been misquoted. So I'm 3 for 3. I'm now understanding why it's somewhat common for public figures to complain about being quoted incorrectly or out of context, and as such I'm likely to minimize future verbal exchanges with media outlets when recording is not an available option.

The following are what I view as misrepresentations of what I stated during my interview, and my point-by-point rebuttal:

Media: SPR Consulting, a digital transformation company, has a client that insisted on keeping everything in a private cloud, but it cost the company millions of dollars to build out everything they thought they might need.

Gfesser:

The cited client was a past client of mine, and not necessarily a recent client (I've been in consulting most of my career).
The cited client did not insist on keeping everything in a private data center, and the private data center they used should simply be referred to as "on premises", not a "cloud".
The point here is that it cost the cited client millions of dollars upfront.

One key advantage of public cloud services usage is future scalability. While it needs to be determined whether chosen services will provide needed scalability, infrastructure to meet future needs doesn't need to be purchased at the outset. In other words, expenditures for unused capacity largely go away.

Media: "It's interesting how some clients will use cost as an excuse [not to move to public cloud], but if you really look at it you pay more," said Erik Gfesser, principal architect at SPR. Organizations look at how public cloud fees are charged, but they don't always consider all the factors, such as how much AWS costs per minute, Gfesser said.

Gfesser:

The point here is that total costs should be fleshed out, regardless of which path is taken.

It's possible that use of public cloud services results in reduced costs, keeping in mind that while everything is possible, not everything is necessarily probable.

One example provided during my interview discussed costs alongside the AWS "shared responsibility model" which states that security of the cloud is the responsibility of AWS, whereas security in the cloud is the responsibility of the customer. Customer evaluation can overlook total costs, because costs for a given public cloud service are typically bundled with non-runtime costs, even if charges are calculated on a per-minute basis only when a given service is running.

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