@The other day I received a call from my Uncle who is an orthopedic surgeon in Charles City, Iowa.
He’s always been an accessible, wise mentor to me, therefore it is always a good thing when he calls me for advice, which he does regularly when it regards Information Technology. Since while he’s a surgeon, he’s an individual with that fearless entrepreneurial trailblazing spirit.
Looking back, I remember him starting one of the very first medical centers in Portmore, Jamaica, and while I was probably no more than 11 at the time, I still remember my Father taking me and my little brother to the center a couple days before opening to clean up the property while he helped his little brother to do some final fixes.
My Uncle also played a critical role to mitigate a very serious incident the family faced awhile back.
Long before starting his haulage business, my Father doing deliveries for a Bakery in Kingston. In 1980 (the same year of that bloodied election where the US backed Jamaica Labour Party unseated the Castro Cuba affiliated People’s National Party in a landslide .. interesting a month later Reagan did the same to Carter “up North”) he was making a delivery at a shop-n-bar on Mountain View in Kingston, just across from the National Stadium. As he entered thru the narrow passage into the shop a man was exiting, so, turning sideways, they squeezed pass each other.
It happened however that the man had just held up and robbed the shop and bar patrons and while making his get-away, squeezing thru the door, he used a garlic soaked knife to slice my Father from just below the top of his right shoulder down into his back while picking his pocket of the cash that was contained in a plastic envelope.
My father, being a reasonably big guy, didn’t realize that he’d been stabbed until he was alerted by the shocked patrons in the shop and bar and his Side-man, who came in shortly afterward with ordered goods. They jumped back into his delivery van and started to pursue the
thief who was making a getaway on a motor cycle. The 
robber got away in a maze of narrow lanes in a Rollington Town ghetto community. My Father was also loosing quite a bit of blood which made it difficult to drive. He gave up the search and drove to Emergency at University Hospital of the West Indies, where my Uncle (an intern at the time) expedited his access to treatment and stitched him up. It took 72 stitches, inside and out, to close the wound.
Fast forward to present time. The other day as I arrived home from work, I ‘m greeted by a ringing home phone, answering it, I hear my Uncle’s voice on the other end. We chat a little, catching up and he shared that he’s getting ready to go down to Jamaica for the weekend, but wanted to bounce something off me.
He explained that he’s setting up a new medical office, and the guys who providing the medical IT systems had already quoted him over U$18,000.00 in hardware alone. ”..and that’s just to start..”
- He goes, “Junior, (yup I’m the “Junior” in my family J) I’ve been thinking about this, and was reading an article the other night about going to the Cloud. From what I see I have an option to either invest in all this hardware, which at this rate, by the time we get setup, there is some new version or upgrade needed, OR I can simply subscribe to this Cloud business and someone else deals with the headache. Right?”
Now by this time I’m anxious to respond, in-fact I had to resist jumping in at the first mention of the word “Cloud.” I had realized this is my very first solid practical opportunity to “sell” the Cloud and in particular IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) or Haas (Hardware as a Service).
With suppressed glee, I started to instruct my Uncle, who I hold is extreme high esteem, why he should move his operation into the Cloud.
“First off, I am an EMCer.” I declared. “My boss who, The Cloud-Father,” could easily have my head if I forego an opportunity to bring an entity into the Cloud. So without a doubt, I’m recommending that you go to the Cloud” He chuckled. I continued. “However, let me qualify why you need to go into the Cloud with your business and explain the benefits…”
1. Security
– “Contrary to traditional belief, your data is much more secure in the Cloud, secured by IT professionals and proven technologies as 
opposed to sitting on hardware in a medical office in a city in Iowa.
You’ll have an SLA (Service Level Agreement) which will commit to the securing of your data, and in the event your data is compromised, then your lawyer AND your banker can have a chat with the Cloud service provider.”
2. Geographically Unrestricted Access / “Business Omnipotence”
– “As opposed to having access to the environment at the medical office or limited access via VPN (hopefully) from remote location, the Cloud provides you with secure access to your business from ANY global location as long as you can access the internet. It’s what I’d like to call Business Omnipotence ”
3. Up-to-date, Scaled Infrastructure
– “Already your supplier has quoted you $18,000 for hardware. Since we started this conversation 10 minutes ago, I’m willing to bet that at least one component in that hardware has gone obsolete. With IaaS your infrastructure will be upgraded dynamically which means you are up-to-date and with zero down time”
4. Use of Advanced Technology Without the Headache of Ownership
– “Think of individuals who rent homes in communities they would not be able to afford to purchase. By renting, they avoid headache of a mortgage, maintenance, improvements, insurance, property value risk. It’s a similar idea, only difference is that, in regards to IT infrastructure, it is a guarantee that asset value will depreciate… Terribly. Not to mention the cost to power, administer, allocate space, secure the location, etc. So what do you do? You rent! or in this case choose Infrastructure as a Service as your storage solution.”
My glowing rant about IaaS was just gathering momentum, when I heard a “..need to get packing” reminder from my Aunt in the background which prompted my Uncle to interject: “Ok, I’m sold! We’re packing to head down to Jamaica for the weekend, but once we get back, I’m going to the Cloud. Thanks Junior, I’m glad I called you about this!
Grinning from ear to ear, I reminded him about his tempered Nike philosophy, “Just Do It… Smart” (in this case Just Cloud iT”), wished him a safe trip, and tallied this as my very first Cloud sale.
If you have questions about the Cloud or IaaS, and would like to explore whether it’s the right solution for you, please post your comments here.
John Stamp
Designated Support Engineer
Customer Services
Twitter: @iDataJohn
