Cloud Computing: Taking an Holistic View

The speed at which Cloud computing has planted its feet firmly in the center stage of the IT and Communications world is quite interesting.  It's not a technology play - in fact I would be hard pushed to identify a single piece of new technology that is fundamental to cloud. And unlike Twitter or Facebook it's not a social-psychology phenomenom in any real sense - there is no "man-in-the-street' movement that is driving the uptake or need for cloud computing.  It is one of those rare beasts - a practical, common-sense driven initiative. 

Putting it simply, cloud computing makes much more efficient use of resources.  In the early stages these resources are essentially processing power and storage, but increasingly the focus of cloud will converge on efficient use of software resources from a bewildering array of sources.  The concept of a user being able to gain access to and pay for these resources on a per-use basis makes great economic sense for everyone from the lone mobile game developer in his garage, to the uber-large scale financial institution.  It also happens to be industry changing.  Unless someone spots a fatal flaw with the concept, over the next ten years we will move from a predominantly distributed computing and storage world, to a centralised computing and storage world.  Conspiracy theorists and thriller writers may make hay from this global IT shift, but I don't see fear stopping this happen.   Major investment in new levels of security are inevitable, and I do predict that cloud's road to success will hit the odd pothole around the area of security, but I don't see this stopping the party.

What makes cloud so interesting is that every one of the global vertical industries (Telecoms, Financials, Retail, etc) has to have two conversations about the cloud - firstly how do we become a cloud user to enable more efficient operations; secondly, how do we leverage our existing platform assets to become a cloud provider.   Telco's in particular are questioning how do they shift their own business models to allow them to emerge as one of the winners in the new cloud world.  They are looking at everything from opening up their own data centers to host other third parties, to (more realistically I believe) opening up their own 'crown jewel' applications such as billing and service management applications. 

So if you are not yet discussing cloud in your business, now is the time to start.