Cloud computing appears to be taking the computing world by storm.
Many businesses and individuals are making some sort of investment in this innovation, which many believe will turn out to be the next big thing in computing, next to the introduction of personal computing.
Investments range from setting up cloud based services to hiring consultants to assist in the eventual migration to the clouds.
Cloud computing offers many benefits: Software and computer sessions are completely online, rendering the use of expensive hardware unnecessary. Data mining analytics would be easier, which should be of great benefit to business management.
Cloud computing principles are being deployed in many aspects of our computing life from emailing to online commerce. Cheap hardware, once connected to the internet will perform all kinds of functions and run software without regard to operating systems or storage capacity, as all computing jobs are carried out online.
A recent outage by Amazon's cloud servers however gives an insight into how things might go wrong in the new computing age.
Will cloud the cloud take over the computing world?
This is the topic for this month's discussion.
A new topic will come up for discussion on the fourth Thursday of June, which is the 23rd of June, 2011.
Download this video which illustrates what you may loose if you carelessly jettison what you have.
The internet has provided the computing community with new capabilities whereby their needs are being met through a connection with a remote server, rather than programs stored in the local disk drive.
It is argued that in the future, users will only use programs and storage capacity they need through providers on the internet, who will only charge by usage.
Hardware will then become cheaper as all that will be required are terminals that connect to the internet to access software and storage will be done on the remote servers. This implies that expensive components such as disk drives, may not be needed.
Welcome to the age of cloud computing.
Expectations about cloud computing are so high as many cloud applications are attracting greater attention.
Some laptop manufacturers even offer an option whereby a laptop user can access the internet directly without going through the operating system, by just pressing a switch.
The computing overhead is small enough to fit handily into mobile devices such as smart phones.
It is clearly seen as the innovation of the future.
Cloud applications are not new. The more popular web based email services give an insight into cloud computing. Email services, where messages and contacts are stored in the provider's servers and deleted when not needed, are becoming more popular than point of presence (POP) applications, where such is downloaded.
Online programs, are carrying out more tasks for the computer user. Many web hosting sites for example, offer programs for building websites quickly online and banking transactions carried out with little reference to the operating system or programs stored in the local disk drive.
Business intelligence and data mining should be painless and effortlessly extracted from data already in the clouds.
Software pirates may have very little chance for survival in an age of cloud computing.
With all these around us, to what extent should we invest our future into cloud computing or depend on it for our technology management?
This paper will now attempt to focus on these and other issues related to cloud computing and its implicions to business and management.
In the more developed economies where infrastructure and living conditions enhance the use and development of cloud computing, some issues may limit its acceptance. These are:-
Industry standards which should deal with issues such as a back up action during natural disasters
How, to manage the effects of a data security compromise and mischief through a virus infection.
How open and free software can cope with maintenance of cloud infrastructure.
How repressive regimes will be prevented from blocking access to the clouds during a period of turmoil
How cloud computing can stack up in real time applications
Customization issues.
Is this path necessarily cost effective?
Reliability
Industry Standards to deal with back up during natural disasters.
This issue has two dimensions:- We may say the recent experience in Japan's north east underscores the power of the cloud. Many businesses would recover quickly if their operations had been in the cloud.
However, there is little discussion about what happens if the center of the disaster is the location of the cloud server. The damage will obviously go beyond the location to affect businesses who rely on their services for data and software.
There are no known regulations yet guiding operators as to the minimum level of precautions to be taken or how lost data can be recovered. Back up servers may be needed in other locations.
Standard investments in security software and measures required to forestal a break in.
Regulators must be able to stipulate a minimum standard of security measures, and ensure a level of compliance Almost every important industry (from food and drugs to aircraft) has regulators. Operators must of necessity alert clients in the event of a security breach.
These standards are expected to operate across borders, from, say Oakland, California, to Lagos, Nigeria.
Open or Free Software
Adherence to standards and customer support would have cost implications. It is doubtful that volunteers will be able to maintain cloud services round the clock without some form of incentive or sponsorship, unless one of the operators incorporate free applications along with its normal operations.
Actions By Repressive Governments
During times of turmoil as witnessed during the first few months of this year in many third world countries, a government would be able to block outgoing news or information through a hold on the internet infrastructure.
This could affect businesses whose information systems are cloud based, or may try to sensor businesses whose cloud servers are located in those countries.
Stacking Up Against Real Time Applications
Computing is not all about office suites. While cloud computing may be perfect for business and data analytics and mining, analysis of stock market trends and patterns and mobile computing etc., real time management such as the stock market transactions in itself, or aircraft traffic control for example cannot be left to the cloud. Operators of tasks of such magnitude and importance should have their own secure and private networks.
While the cloud may have indefinite number of tools for creating applications quickly as we see with online website development tools in many website hosting sites, a server may be under some stress to cope with all kinds of customization required by increasingly more sophisticated clients.
Some of these tools obtained online may become more useful in a local network setting.
Cost Effectiveness.
Will the cost effectiveness beat the collapsing costs of IT hardware and software worldwide?
Pay per use regime at present does not appear to be expensive. Services usually require a small flat fee or something inexpensive if not totally free.
If cloud computing takes off as predicted and sales of inexpensive terminals dominate the markets, the charges may not remain as low, especially when competition from non cloud applications reduce.
Migration from one cloud provider to another may not be easier than what obtains at present, when someone discards one software package for another.
Larger clients may require consultants in the migration to the cloud at a substantial cost to business and management.
Downtime and Reliability Issues
Cloud computing as a whole, is not a mature industry, unlike the non cloud offerings. Most computer users are able to fix common problems with their systems, or able to get help quickly. For cloud computing however, there are issues for which the clients may be helpless such as:-
downtime or other problems with the internet service
outage with the cloud service.
In such instances, the client just has to wait until the situation is rectified.
This illustrates why such a system may prove unsuitable for critical realtime applications and some aspects of business management.
If solutions are found for the outlined problems, there are still two others that may require the use or perfection of some more advanced technology namely:-
Third World Factor.
While some conditions which would make cloud computing thrive are entrenched in developed economies, where most sales in IT services take place, the same cannot be said of the smaller but faster growing markets of the developing world.
Some of these conditions such as fast internet access, widespread use of online payment instruments such as credit cards and of course, the earning power to pay for applications may inhibit active participation.
It may be argued that the fast growing mobile telephone networks in these areas offer promising opportunities. However, not all mobile networks deploy state of the art internet services everywhere. In some locations, especially rural areas in the third world, the emphasis may be on voice. The few, if any customers interested in cloud may not constitute profitable clientele for the network company.
While applications are rapidly taking advantage of this new trend, the existing non cloud applications will still find widespread use in emerging economies. IT companies which therefore shift to cloud applications will find their service niches being undermined by those who refuse to shift and provide local disk alternatives to their business management needs
Cloud Computing In The Clouds.
A safe way to allow broadband access during flights without compromising safety and air craft communications still has to be perfected. Passengers hitherto had the ability to do their work using applications and data stored on their hard disks.
Old habits, they say, die hard! If physical books still have sales values, even among IT students, and professionals, why should we expect the good old PC system to extinct in favor of web only application terminals soon?
As the world gets more sophisticated and computing needs get more diverse, it is doubtful that all the customization needs of the computer user will be met by cloud providers alone. By limiting computing needs to cloud providers implies information technology is turning a full cycle to the time when mainframes producers and applications once dominated the industry.
It is inconceivable that other stakeholders in the information technology industry, particularly disk drive manufacturers, will be content with supplying critical hardware only to cloud computing providers who may not mop up their production capacity. They will of course intensify their marketing and will look for new users and customers.
I guess the best scenario is one that optimizes the advantages of cloud computing with the practicality of local PC computing, with capabilities for copying and transferring files through removable media.
On the long run however, as computing power continues to increase, and software tools become widely available, every PC may eventually become part of cloud computing, not just as a result of cloud connections, but by providing cloud services itself, in a model consistent with today's distributed computing.
