What is Cloud Computing? Cloud computing is the provision of resource capabilities to customers by 3rd parties over the Web. These include storage resources compute resources and provision of services both infrastructure and application. In some sense, it is an evolution of the Software as a Service model from a few years ago. But is it all it is cracked up to be?
The key feature of Cloud Computing is the sense of ‘elasticity’. That is, consumers can turn up or down their requirements as their business dictates. This enables company agility, supplies management of expenses as you are not paying for resource you are not using and lastly enables consumers to focus on their core enterprise with IT as an enabler.
The traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ Information Center is vaporizing into the cloud, along with it we are seeing adjustments to licensing and how businesses invest in their IT model. Companies no longer wish to invest heavily in back end infrastructure, preferring to invest directly in their organization initiatives. IT is increasingly becoming seen as a Service, and Cloud Computing goes a lengthy way to support this model.
The two key technologies that have driven forward Cloud Computing have been the Net and Virtualization. Both provide the foundation of rapidly access anywhere to a scalable, elastic architecture that can breathe in and out as a company’s organization model adjustments.
One key concern for many Companies is security of details in the cloud. What happens to your details when it is no longer physically in your Information Center or indeed sitting on Infrastructure that is owned or managed by you? How do you get it back if the relationship with your Cloud Provider turns sour? As cloud computing is still evolving, several of these company models stay undefined and unproven.
If you are looking into Cloud models for your organization, be clear in your expectations be tight in your negotiations and be aware of the risks that may possibly be certain to your company in Cloud Computing, but most importantly, leverage the opportunities the Cloud can provide your organization.