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Cloud computing what have you done for me lately?


Cloud computing is a technology only parallel to the Internet itself. Building on the foundation of the Internet it has changed industries, market competition and the way we work and play every day.

What we need to consider is that cloud computing transforms the way we will use data information to conduct personal and business in the future. Therefore, to gain a good understanding we should clarify:

  • What is Cloud Computing
  • Key Trends and Highlights
  • Benefits and adoption considerations

Cloud computing is defined as a standardized IT capability (services, software, or infrastructure) delivered via Internet technologies in a pay-per-use, self-service way. Cloud computing will impact the $2.5 trillion dollar Internet, Communication and Telecommunications industrymarkets spend that will:

  • Change the way businesses and IT solutions are deployed
  • Transform traditional separate hardware and software providers into service platforms

Some familiar cloud computing provided services include: Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google, Amazon and Salesforce.com, to name a few. While there are many cloud computing trends that are pointed out in the media, I am highlighting four key trends in this post. Research shows that cloud computing will:

  1. Impact the valuation models investors use to appraise organizations and its effect on disrupting vertical industries. Cloud computing enables organizations to reinvent themselves and simultaneously creating new entrants.  (i.e. Apple and how it transformed the music industry onto iPOD and iTunes)
  2. The business impact of social computing has overlapped the professional and personal boundaries. These services allow one access to individuals across and between organizations that will result in an increase in personal productivity and add to economic growth (i.e. Services like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin that allow for collaboration)
  3. Context aware technologies (wireless technologies and intelligent devices such as tablets, notebooks etc.) deliver location-based services that track patterns of behavior that will change the way business is conducted (i.e. Integration of GPS and maps that has created a variety of location-based services).
  4. Pattern based technologies that utilize sophisticated algorithms that seek out patterns from information sources to model their impact and adapt to a scenario based on the need or impact of the emergent pattern.

Organizations cite several benefits by adopting cloud computing the highest noted is speeding up application delivery.  Additional benefits include organization cost savings and a focus on core competencies for IT organizations. However, there are many items to consider before adopting cloud-based technologies. Below I highlight three that may not be as clearly understood and create a bit of industry debate:

  1. Lack of visibility into cloud providers infrastructure creates a need for security, privacy and availability to ensure desired practices are in place to protect the buyer and it’s consumers
  2. Demonstrate regulatory compliance requires access to detail information that may be restricted by providers and not shared or mined for business intelligence
  3. Legal and contractual clarity for liability and ownership of damages due to information and Intellectual property breeches

Good luck on harnessing the exploits of cloud computing and it’s impact on how we work in play in the future. The potential for cloud computing impact on society is as high as the sky.

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If you are considering Cloud Computing or SaaS read this!


Keep Eyes Wide Open When Considering SaaS

Organizations today rely heavily on their IT software to drive the business objectives to meet the needs of the market. There are a number of sophisticated software applications that have grown in demand and complexity to support an organization’s value chain such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and, conversely, the back office, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). In the traditional model, to meet the needs of the organization the IT department designs software, hosts applications, codified software and manages the operational functions to distribute the internal software packages to customers.

This is a summary of an article that I authored to that was printed in Cloud Computing Journal and reprinted in others. Follow the title link to the full article

Regards,

Peter

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