Cloud computing heralds a new era of efficiency.
An emerging computer model-cloud computing-has evolved to
address the explosive growth of Internet-connected devices, and to
complement the increasing presence of technology in today's world.
Today we are always connected, always on: from Blackberries and
wireless access, to the invisible layer that increasingly touches
every aspect of our lives. Power grids, traffic control,
healthcare, water supplies, food and energy, along with most of the
world's financial transactions are all part of the new data driven
economy. The data we access and produce in this new environment is
not in a single device or network; it's everywhere. Providing
reliable, flexible, and cost-effective access to all that data is
the challenge being faced by countless organisations today. It is
no longer just the larger corporations and government departments
seeing this shift, all businesses today are experiencing this
change. This increase in demand for data can no longer be satisfied
by traditional data storage and access technologies in a cost
effective way.
Cloud computing is a new style of computing.
As defined by Wikipedia, cloud computing is a style of computing
in which dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are
provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have
knowledge of, or control over the technology infrastructure in the
"cloud" that supports them.
The concept generally incorporates combinations of:
- infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
- platform as a service (PaaS)
- software as a service (SaaS)
Cloud computing represents a true paradigm shift in the
consumption and delivery of IT services. Cloud computing focuses on
the user, and offers highly efficient acquisition and delivery of
IT and information services. Cloud computing is massively scalable,
offers a superior user experience, and is characterised by new,
Internet-driven economics.
Cloud computing is where one service provider may be delivering
data to hundreds or thousands of individual customers at the same
time. For example, cloud computing is allowing the growth of online
service providers, companies that didn't exist just a decade
ago.
Reduce expenses, improve service quality, or explore innovative
business models.
Representing a true paradigm shift in the way we see and exploit
technology, organisations are increasingly turning to IT service
providers to plug them into the cloud. Cloud computing offers you
these critical advantages:
- Workload-centric solutions driving efficiencies and innovation
across the business (development, test, analytics, infrastructure,
etc.)
- Superior service management providing visibility, control and
automation across IT and business services
- New deployment choices over the cloud, behind your firewall or
as an integrated service delivery platform
- Transparent availability of massively scalable IT resources-on
demand, regardless of time zone or device
- Reduced capital expenditures on quickly outdated equipment and
applications
- Reduced labour costs, and potentially reduced physical space
requirements
Already, leading service providers are bringing
the cloud to you.
Since just late 2008, a number of leading service providers have
begun to roll out useful applications using clouds for
organisations to tap into. From Yahoo helping researchers to access
greater processing power, IBM with systems to deliver banking data
to customers faster, to Google giving access to what's essentially
the world's largest supercomputer to schools. Organisations will be
rewarded for looking into the new opportunities inside this cloud,
made possible by the proliferation of faster internet
connections.
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