Archive for July, 2010

Cloud computing: are we on the cusp?

“Cloud computing is on the cusp of broad enterprise adoption,” states the Yankee Group in a recently released report.

Sixty percent of firms see cloud computing as enabling business to excel, adds the IT research house in a recent survey of 400 U.S. businesses.

Perhaps a notably telling sign of the cloud’s popularity is the rapid growth of this positive view of  cloud computing.  The 60% favorable rating is up significantly – from 37% – in a scant twelve months.

How does that positive view seem to play out?  Large enterprises lean toward a private cloud while small- and medium-sized business is investigating cloud applications and cloud platform and infrastructure providers.

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2010
07/28
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Look out, Al Gore, Cloud will be bigger than Internet


“Cloud computing will surpass the Internet in importance,” Georgetown University professor Mike Nelson told attendees of the World Future Society conference in Boston earlier this month.

Cloud computing will level the playing field for those with or without financial resources.  According to Nelson, cloud computing will allow developing nations to access resources once only available to affluent countries.  Similarly, small businesses will save money and capital expenditures by tapping cloud-based services and platforms – tapping resources previously monopolized by enterprise-level business.

The growing popularity of the Cloud is evident, as several recent surveys have pointed out.  The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports in their May 2010 survey update that 66% of people responding indicated they regularly use cloud computing, up from 10% in 2000, when the Project conducted its first survey on the subject.

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2010
07/26
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Cloud Computing’s Bill of Rights?

Who owns rights over your firm’s data when it’s “in the cloud”, how cloud computing performance issues will be remediated, how to ensure security in the cloud, and software licensing responsibilities when working in the cloud were among six “rights of the customer” addressed in a just-released Gartner Group publication on cloud computing.

The research firm waded in to help put forth some working guidelines between cloud customers and their cloud computing providers in an technology environment that still resembles the Wild West.  Like the Gold Rush of the 19th century, expectations vary significantly and snake charmers and charlatans are numerous.

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2010
07/19
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A “once-in-a-20-year” game-changer

Microsoft’s Jim DuBois calls cloud computing a “once-in-a-20-year inflection point” for the IT industry – one that will fundamentally change IT and IT management.

Spurred by flexible architecture and scalability, cloud computing gives IT professionals capabilities to respond as never before to changing business demands.

Yet IT professionals will face challenges, reports the Australian’s Ian Grayson.  The cloud’s enticing prospects create management challenges for IT professionals who must keep their cloud-based architecture – and the potential for “server sprawl” – under control.  In fact, many industry experts say IT management will become key to organizations’ successful adoption of cloud computing.

The shift to the cloud seems inevitable for most companies.  It will greatly change the nature of how we “do” IT in the future and, points out Grayson, will necessitate “re-tooling” skill sets for many IT professionals.

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2010
07/14
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Daily Telegraph heads for the Cloud

Britain’s oldest newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, decided recently to implement a “cloud adoption strategy.”  Telegraph CTO Toby Wright says the shift allows the newspaper to “offer more value to its readers” and plans to go cloud-based with all new business ventures of the 155 year old paper.

Facing financial pressures common to many industries today (and particularly harsh among newspapers), the transition to cloud computing frees large amounts of capital for the cash-hungry media company – capital previously committed to IT infrastructure.  And it redefines the role of IT, helping IT professionals focus on strategy rather than as a cost center providing operational support.

The Telegraph provides an instructive lesson in how rapidly the business world is changing and how imperative it is to move to an IT approach that supports it.

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2010
07/12
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To Cloud or not to Cloud – is that the question? Or is it: Am I already “clouding” and don’t know it?

Whether they realize it or not, a growing number of CIOs are relying on cloud computing.  In a recently published survey, nearly 60% of European CIOs reported using specific cloud computing services, although many didn’t understand that they were, in fact, using the Cloud.

To wit: half of these same surveyed CIOs reported they are not using cloud services and a third say they have no plans to use cloud services in the next five years.

How can IT professionals not know they’re using the Cloud?  It seems the Cloud is more confusing to define and understand than we thought.

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http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/060710-tech-argument-cloud-computing.html

2010
07/01
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