A Cloudy Day is Coming - Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is becoming more mainstream and it is a matter of time before more organizations jump into the bandwagon. Cloud computing is a disruptive  phenomenon and makes organizations become more responsive and agile. Today it is difficult to have a conversion on the future of technology and not mention Cloud. Cloud computing promises economic advantages; speed, agility, flexibility, infinite elasticity and innovation. Computing is shifting from a Commodity and into a Utility. Why is cloud computing becoming more mainstream? An interesting analogy to understanding this, is the Evolution of Electricity in 1879 when the light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison.

When Edison invented the light bulb he had to build a power station since there was no publicly available electricity to power the bulb. People did not want the power station they needed the light. You could say this was truly the first light bulb moment in the utility model of thinking.  

In the period of industrialization, industries needed power to run and therefore were forced to generate their own power. This power generation plant was ideally collocated where the industry was built. Workers whose work was to take care of power supply did not add to the output of the factory. As Utility Power became mainstream, Factories were able to focus on their core business and NOT on generation of power. This meant that workers employed to run the power supply could now shift focus on the factory's core business and make it more productive. This analogy is not only true for electricity but also water and gas which are consumed as Utilities.

Now as with electricity, water and gas, Computing is also shifting into a Utility. It is a resource to be switched ON and OFF,  when it is needed and as much as is needed. Organizations should be able to scale up from one to tens of thousands of users or compute nodes in a short time and only pay for what they use. The ability to burst resources when needed assures organizations of rapid elasticity.

IT departments for a long time have been sizing resources by guessing what they might require in 3 to 5 years. This model means that you run the risk of over-sizing or under-sizing and thereby not matching technology and expenditure with business requirements.

Today any business no matter its size can have the benefits of scalability, reliability, security, transparency and compliance by running their workloads on cloud. The entrance of many players in the Public Cloud market means that costs will continue going down and business can reap from this benefit. In addition the big players in Cloud have Economies of Scale which result in lower pay as you go pricing.

Pressure is mounting on organizations to be more flexible and innovative to rapidly address competitive threats and satisfy user demands. There is need to deliver higher levels of efficiency and responsiveness to compete with low cost, on-demand services from external suppliers. 

Of course not all workloads will move to cloud as security and compliance is key for some organizations among other factors. Cloud is a journey and the move for traditional organizations begins with migration of non-critical applications, test and development workloads, productivity and collaboration applications among others.   

In conclusion organizations need to stick to their core business and shift focus from keeping the lights ON. The power of technology is in what it can deliver to both the business and its customers and not on where it seats. More and more business will be forced to look at IT as a Service (ITaaS) and trade off capital expenses for operational expenses. Employees also need to be more productive and empowered. Cloud Computing is a truly disruptive technology and will continue to take shape in businesses as it evolves.