A Hotel in the Cloud Bruno Albietz bruno.albietz@ehl.ch 079 308 3056
Cloud Computing: Any interest for the hospitality industry? The new paradigm for hosting and delivering services over the internet? or Another marketing term coined by Google, Salesforce, Amazon and the likes to sell their IT services?
Agenda What is Cloud Computing? Benefits and issues. How can the hospitality industry benefit from Cloud Computing? Some hospitality IT players and their Cloud Computing offerings. A proposal for an integrated solution. Discussion.
Cloud Computing: a definition Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA http://www.nist.gov/ IT as a utility (like gas, electricity, etc.).
More precisely, Cloud Computing is: Software as a Service (SaaS) Google apps, Facebook, LinkedIn, Salesforce, YouTube, Dropbox, Microsoft Office 365, GoToMeeting, NetSuite, SAP Business ByDesign, etc. Business applications for the individual and the enterprise Platform as a Service (PaaS) Microsoft Windows Azure, Amazon (AWS), Force.com, Google App Engine, etc. Infrastructure + operating systems and application frameworks to build and deploy applications Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Amazon EC2, HP, IBM, CloudSigma (CH), Cloudwatt (FR), etc. hardware (servers, routers, switches, power and cooling systems, etc.) + Virtualization (partitioning of physical resources)
IDC Forecasts Worldwide Public IT Cloud Services Spending to Reach Nearly $108 Billion by 2017 A CAGR of 23.5% over the 2013-17 period (5 times that of the IT industry as a whole) The largest category is SaaS with 59.7% of revenues in 2017 The fastest growing categories are PaaS and IaaS with respectively CAGRs of 29.7% and 27.2%.
Why is it growing?
Cloud Computing: some benefits No up-front investment (capex vs. opex) Pay-as-you go pricing model / rental fee i.e. salesforce (by month and by user), Amazon (by hourly usage) Reduction of maintenance time and expenses No infrastructure / application to manage internally Less need for IT resources You pay for what you need You benefit from regular software and hardware updates Highly scalable and flexible i.e. extra computing resources for peak activities or for test environments Fast deployment Easy access, generally web-based You need internet connectivity Expertise of service providers compared to small internal IT departments
Some issues about Cloud Computing Data security Confidentiality (i.e. Patriot Act): where do you my data reside? Auditability of Cloud Computing providers (security, backups, ISO 27000 certification, etc.) Data lock-in and migration Legal contracts Which national legislation? SLAs not always straightforward and standardized Availability of service Your internet access is crucial Your SaaS / PaaS / IaaS provider: you sometimes hear about failure of cloud computing providers (i.e. Microsoft Azure in Feb 2012 and Feb 2013 or salesforce in summer 2012) but what about your internal IT applications, always available 99.99%?
Any interest for the hospitality industry? Saving money and time You do not have to build and manage your own IT infrastructure (i.e. buy servers and licenses, install, upgrade, migrate to new versions, etc.). You pay based on your activity i.e. rate per occupied room You do not have to invest in capex. You concentrate on guests and not on IT You do not have to maintain specialized IT expertise in-house (if you have any ) Increased flexibility You and your guests access your cloud applications from anywhere and from most devices Satisfy your tech savvy guests Increased security Data confidentiality of Cloud Computing providers versus your ability to maintain, secure, update, and back-up your IT infrastructure and applications? Are your data safer in-house or at your provider?
Any good candidate for Cloud Computing?
Some players in the SaaS hospitality market Property Management System protel bookatonce, protel air Hotelogix Hetras Reservation systems Bookatable LaFourchette POS Micros Simphony iselz CRM Salesforce Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 LibraOnDemand ERP Mirus (hosted in their data center) Divalto idylis Concierge applications Goconcierge Revenue management system easyrms
Looks promising! But let us look at the other side of the coin Imagine a hotel with the following apps
The problem of application interfacing What would you do?
Some alternatives Develop point-to-point interfaces between applications. Purchase an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) to interface your applications. Get rid of all applications and purchase Cenium Interfacing is a bit more difficult when you have SaaS applications.
Another alternative A Cloud Based Delivery Solution through a Market Place
Discussion Low adoption rate of Cloud Computing in hospitality: Why?