Educating you on the benefits and "how to" of integrating cloud computing with your business network.

Many of your employees are already making the shift to the Cloud in their private lives – and the trend is accelerating, according to researchers at Elon University in a recent survey of internet and tech experts.

Is your firm contemplating making the move to the Cloud?  The trend toward the Cloud in personal/consumer computing can only help your firm shift its computer needs to the Cloud, since many on your staff will already be comfortable navigating in the Cloud.

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Chris Murphy, editor of InformationWeek, blogged that he was “surprised” by the findings appearing in the cover story of his magazine’s most recent issue.  The surprise: 58% of companies surveyed had plans to implement private cloud computing in the near future.

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/06/these_private_c.html

The term “private cloud computing” has been described as “the cloud residing behind your firewall” or as emulating the “public cloud” but existing on a private network.  As such, users enjoy, among other benefits, better security and connectivity than that attributed to the public cloud.

In fact, the magazine found, conversely, that close to 2/3 of companies surveyed had no plans to utilize public cloud platforms and applications, primarily because of perceived security risks.

Given the benefits of private cloud computing, we’re not surprised at the positive response companies are giving to it.

“If Salesforce didn’t exist, just imagine how many servers, disc drives, etc, our 77,000 customers would have to buy,” says Salesforce.com CEO Mark Benioff. “Every small company would need at least one server. Big companies, like the Citibanks of the world, would need several. So, all put together (these companies) would need at least 100,000 servers.” But in its three global data centres, Salesforce has just 3,000 servers, not 100,000. “Just 3 per cent,” says Benioff. “That’s the efficiency of cloud computing.”

Read more:

http://business.asiaone.com/Business/Tech%2BSense/Highlights/Story/A1Story20100614-221969.html

Salesforce.com became the world’s first billion dollar cloud computing company in early 2009.

Looking for a heated debate these days?  The security of cloud computing offers just such a debate, argued passionately by highly informed IT professionals supporting the inherent security of cloud computing on one side and those arguing the inherent risk of centralized cloud computing platforms on the other.

Entering the fray is the Ponemon Institute’s study of 900-some IT executives.  Findings include a lack of proactive security evaluation by businesses using cloud computing platforms (no surprise there!) and the inconsistent security measures of various cloud providers (again, no surprise…).

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The state of cloud computing security

What’s a concerned CxO to do?  Recent developments in cloud computing seek to marry the benefits of the cloud with the security, performance, and integrity of your local network.  Intriguing?  Stay tuned!

Increasingly, cloud computing is becoming a resource more business are seeking to harness.  PCMag.com quotes cloud computing expert John Willis: “cloud technology will have a footprint in every business.” Willis even predicts the cloud’s “footprint” will be in every business by 2013.

Check out Willis quote in PCMag here:

The cloud’s footprint

Business leaders and IT professionals alike will decide over the next few years whether the cloud’s footprint looks more like a boot in the pants or a well thought-out strategy.  How can you best leverage the cloud for your business?  Will you pick and choose cloud-based applications?  Perhaps look at private cloud computing – or even beyond that to what’s being called local cloud computing?