Dennis Allio has been consulting in software development since the first days of Workstate nearly 20 years ago. He's always branded himself as a technology "go-to guy;" bringing common-sense, practical, everyday experience and strategy to anyone with a need for development assistance. He's worked with companies of nearly every size; from startups and small businesses, to enterprise companies, to some of the most well-known brands in the world. Recently, Dennis has decided to take on the role of Practice Lead for Workstate's Cloud Shift practice. Here, we take a few minutes talk with Dennis about his change from Workstate's Group President, Technology Services to Group President, Cloud Technology Services.

Q: What prompted the change from Technology Services to Cloud Technology Services?

A: I've embodied a no-nonsense, practical, results-oriented approach to technology consulting for many years. Cloud Computing started out very much as a series of specialized functions, targeted at the rapidly growing world of Software as a Service (SaaS) companies, eventually evolving to incorporate Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and virtualization. I've come to realize over the past few years (recently cemented with a visit to AWS re:Invent, as well as announcements of the new, wider availability of Azure AD, as well as Google's maturing platform) that cloud computing services are finally aligned with that pragmatic, “get-it-done” mentality that I appreciate so much. I'm now seeing cloud computing as the best way, for not only SaaS and IaaS, but also Platform as a Service (PaaS), and serverless computing. Soon enough, the world will be working on the cloud, and my vision is that Cloud Computing Services will become simply Technology Services, or Computing Services, in the not-so-distant future as everyone migrates to these technologies. Workstate's Cloud Shift practice is focused on that transformation.

Q: What  do you see as the biggest challenge with companies migrating to the cloud?

A: The reason we named our practice "Cloud Shift" is because it really is ... I'm cringing to use this buzzword ... a paradigm shift in computing.This paradigm shift is the challenge. For so many developers, the general belief is that cloud computing is jokingly, "just running your code on someone else's computer." This really focuses cloud computing on the concept of hardware, where the real benefit is that the hardware (and soon, the operating system), no longer matters. This shift really blurs the line between an IT department owning all of infrastructure, and the application developers owning the software in a company. Organizations that focus on moving to cloud computing, and only see the infrastructure or software side of computing, will fail to truly benefit from all that it has to offer. It requires organizational, as well as leadership buy-in to complete a real Cloud Shift.

Q: What are the benefits for everyone who embraces cloud computing?

A: Companies in the midst of, or just starting, their migration journeys are focusing on traditional business drivers like reducing capital expenditure and operational expenditure. Developers and application owners see things like eliminating scaling issues, or reducing downtime. I think now, the qualitative benefits of cloud computing have become equally important to those more quantitative benefits. There are huge opportunities to improve what I call the “SPA triangle” of world-class software. SPA in this case stands for Stability, Performance and Agility.

• Stability: If the wheels come off the race car, you're not going to get far. Your software needs to be stable, and have systems to support that stability.
• Performance: Software needs to function in the best way possible for everyone involved, and this includes performing in all types of cost drivers.
• Agility: Software must adapt to your growing business. If it doesn't evolve, it will hold your business back. Agility is a competitive advantage you don’t want to lose to your cloud-adopting industry rivals.

There are many ways to get these benefits with your software and cloud computing. Many companies start with simple Lift and Shift, but the thing I am most excited about is Lift and Evolve for applications. Two examples of Lift and Evolve are: Migrating to a license-free, highly available and scalable managed cloud database, and evolving even further by finding opportunities to use serverless cloud architectures. With cloud computing, the possibilities to evolve your apps and improve your SPA is increasing monthly.

Q: How do you recommend that people get started in their migration journey?

A: Unlike my business title, the answer to this has been the same as long as I've been in the consulting business; “Let's take a few minutes to talk.” I promise I won't waste your time, and we'll either end up working together, or we'll both learn something about our businesses and be wiser for that meeting.