x

Leaders recall valuable lessons of their youth

I
t wasnt rising at 6 a.m. to deliver stacks of Des Moines Register newspapers to fellow students at Grinnell College that Mary Sue Coleman remembered. It was the reaction of some peersto the seriousminded science student as she worked part-timeto helpcovercosts of her education. The way they treated me as a newspaper delivery person was illuminating, said Coleman, president at the University of Michigan. It brought home how important it is to be respectful of everyone. And I learned the lengths some were willing to go to avoid paying their bills when I came to collect, she said, laughing. Like many successfulleaders, she carries the lasting lessons of youth. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing also delivered newspapers. Healso mowed lawns, worked as an apprentice

GROWING IN MICHIGAN
SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 2011 WWW.FREEP.COM

3B
x

THEY TELL CAROL CAIN OF ENDURING IMPACT OF THEIR EARLY WORK EXPERIENCE
bricklayer for his late father and as a janitor in college. My parents instilled in me the value of a good work ethic at a young age, Bing said. He hit paydirt as an NBA player withDetroit Pistons and made $15,000 in his rookie year. He worked a second job. My parents used to joke it was too bad I wasnt born 15 years later, said Bing, when NBA superstars made millions. Other leaders say their time in the military had an impact. Peter Secchia, Grand Rap-

ids businessman and former U.S. ambassador to Italy, made his first trip to Europeserving in the U.S. Marines. He learned about the rigors and discipline that he needed in his next job. The toughest job at Universal Forest Products was during my training when I was unloading boxcars in British Columbia, Canada, in the winter of 1963 during 40-below-zero temperatures, said Secchia. I was there to learn the lumber business, which he did, retiring 40 years later as CEO. Tony Earley was 22 when he joined the Navy. Those were Cold War years, recalled Earley,senior chairman at DTE. American and Soviet submarines played a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Someone asked me why I looked so calm during the 2003 power blackout in Michigan, he said. I told them as a 25-year-old subma-

Rod Alberts

Rod Alberts, left, executive director of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association, arm wrestled in college and professionally for a time.

rine officer, I monitored Soviet fleet exercises or trailed Soviet subs. When you are doing that, you realize the lives of 100 sailors and an expensive ship are in your hands. If you screw up, you create a major international

incident. You mature pretty fast. Rod Alberts, executive director of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association and the North American International Auto Show, competed as an arm wrestler in college

and professionally. He wrestled 26-time world champion Alan Fisher in 1985. Its OK to get your butt kicked a few times on the way to the top.As a matter a fact, it is a requirement, said Alberts, who lost to Fisher. Blue Cross Blue Shield President and CEO Daniel Loepp won a coveted job as an overnight billing clerk at Merrill Lynch as a senior attending De La Salle Collegiate High. My advice? Dont be bashful, said Loepp. Its the reason I got that first job over 15 other guys. Which bring us back to Coleman, who helps prepare people for their future. Take the job even if it isnt something you necessarily want to do. You will learn. Every job teaches you something, she said.
T CONTACT CAROL CAIN: 313-222-6732 OR CLCAIN@CBS.COM. CAIN HOSTS MICHIGAN MATTERS AT 11 A.M. SATURDAYS ON WWJ-TV CBS DETROIT.

COVER STORY

The basics of cloud computing

It allows companies to store data, do tasks on off-site servers
By MARK W. SMITH
FREE PRESS TECHNOLOGY COLUMNIST

Before the advent of the power grid, companies supplied their own electricity with devices like waterwheels, churning constantly to provide enough juice for daily operations. But more than a hundred years ago, those companies were able to plug into a centralized grid, freeing them from managing their own power sources. Companies now face a similar transition as they stop using traditional inhouse data storage and computing solutions and tap instead into a vast network of online storage. That context, which serves as the thesis of Nicholas Carrs influential book The Big Switch, is the basis of the cloud computing movement. Using the cloud a catch-all term for storing data or completing tasks through off-premise servers has become a key focus of businesses small and large. Once you get past that marketing term, whats happening is definitely for real, says Bryan Beecher, director of computer and network services at the University of Michigan. But many questions remain. A recent Microsoft survey found that more than half of small- to medium-size businesses in 10 key U.S. cities including Detroit have either never heard of the cloud or have heard of it but know nothing about it. That same survey also found that only 16% of small- to medium-size businesses had a cloud project planned. Here is a primer for those thinking of rising further into the cloud:

Free Press illustration source images from www.sxc.hu, Getty

What is the cloud?

The cloud is basically a metaphor for the Internet. Tapping into the cloud allows companies to abandon on-premise servers and IT departments tasked with maintaining and troubleshooting computing resources inside their own four walls. At the end of the day, the less IT resources you have on premise and focus instead on your core business the better, says Vanessa Alvarez, a cloud-computing analyst at Forrester Research. Most of us use the cloud daily already with tasks like e-mail. Those messages and any attachments are stored in servers far away, not on our computers. You might not be sure where they are, but thats OK. You dont have to care where they are, Beecher says. T Ability to upgrade. One of the largest expenses in a traditional IT department is upgrading, troubleshooting and fixing in-house server solutions. In the cloud, those servers are maintained and upgraded automatically by a provider like Amazon, Microsoft or Google. When youre in the cloud environ-

Cloud computing advantages

ment, youre always on the latest and greatest, says Microsoft Vice President and General Manager John Fikany. T Ability to scale. Using cloud computing also allows business to make it safely through sudden or anticipated spikes in data processing, like the holiday shopping season for merchants. If those merchants managed their own IT services, they would have to anticipate that spike and maintain that high level of computing resources in-house year-round, even when they only used a fraction. For that, cloud is the perfect solution, because you just burst into the cloud, Alvarez says. At the end of that period, you can shut off those resources and thats it. Youre not continuing to pay for that infrastructure. T Flexible computing resources. The cloud isnt just about storing data on far-away servers. Tapping into the cloud also allows companies to create virtual machines theoretical computers that sit fully inside the cloud. Virtual machines arent actually computers, theyre just chunks of the cloud, but they can perform all the same tasks. And, to the end user, theres no knowing that the applications and files theyre accessing are actually stored far away and not on their machine. Using them reduces a business reliance on buying and maintaining traditional and high-powered computer

hardware and allows it to set aside segments of the cloud devoted to computing tasks, Beecher says. When I dont need a virtual machine anymore, Amazon will turn off the bill, he says.

Cloud computing disadvantages

For some businesses, it might be more cost effective to not enter the cloud. Especially for small firms, it might make sense to buy a small low-end $1,000 server and run it for 10 years, Beecher says. Cloud service prices vary widely depending on the amount of storage and amount of layered services provided, but most pricing plans will charge per hour sometimes at a rate of a cent or less and also for the amount of storage you need. Businesses also lose physical control of their hardware, as they depend on a company, sometimes across the country, to maintain the infrastructure that their business runs on.

ple. For U-Ms Beecher, a cloud-based strategy allows him to do more with his own resources. I can do less of the very routine stuff that other people are better at anyway and focus on the tech thats more unique to the kind of business we have here. Why would I want to hire somebody to manage a machine room and figure out how much electricity we need when I can pay Amazon that?

where may open up the hosting company to some disclosure through official requests such as subpoenas or Freedom of Information Act requests. It might not be an ownership problem, he says. But can people get to it when they might not have been able to get to it if it wasnt in the cloud?

Is data stored in the cloud safe?

Private cloud services, like those offered by Microsoft, include high levels of security. Data centers are kept current with international standards on security and data back-ups, Microsoft says. If a company has to keep sensitive information such as financial or medical records, a hybrid solution can be worked out to keep some data secure in-house while still leveraging the power of the cloud on other tasks, Abbot says. We arent saying that the cloud is right for everybody, he says. And moving data from in-house servers to the cloud can actually improve security, Alvarez says, as many security breaches come from a companys own employees with the theft of things like trade secrets. Theres really no difference anymore between whether you have it onpremise or in the cloud, Alvarez says. You still run the same risks.
T CONTACT MARK W. SMITH: 313-223-4424 OR MSMITH@FREEPRESS.COM. FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER: @MARKDUBYA

If a company puts its data on the Web, who owns it?

For consumers, part of the trepidation with giving cloud-based sites like Facebook or Flickr data such as photos or videos is that those sites assume some ownership of that content. For corporate entities, though, data ownership is something that is hashed out at the beginning of any cloud-based strategy, says Eric Abbot, an online solution specialist at Microsoft. And all that important data remains owned solely by the businesses. Part of that, too, is the ability for firms to take the data stored to another company if desired, Abbot said, which is also part of the agreements hashed out at the outset. But putting your companys data in the cloud still may carry some risks, Beecher says. Even if a company retains ownership rights to its data, storing it else-

Streamlining and efficiency: Is that code for job losses?

Not always. Many companies are using the resources freed up by a cloud-based data strategy in other parts of their companies. In some cases, theyre reducing, Fikany said of firms that had previously managed their own data centers. In other cases, theyre redeploying peo-