University of California at Berkeley, defines cloud computing as – “….the applications that are delivered as services over internet as well as the software and hardware systems at data centers that enables the delivery of these services”
These services can vary from –
- Tapping various software applications and platforms related requirements
- Saves time, efforts, costs and mitigates risk
- Allowing integrated data-housing capabilities across geographies
- Helps in greater synergy across locations coupled with information synchronization
- Data mining capabilities for vast data aggregated in multi-layered format
- Data analysis helping in strategic decision making
As evident these services (and many more) can be catered to a large number of customers which falls under various industrial and functional domains.
Cloud was initially dubbed as the next big thing in IT/ITes only and hence it was majorly propagated by the avant-gardes of IT services. However, the world has now come to the realization that cloud is much more than what everyone expected it to be, another IT Innovation.
The below figure tries to visualize the above explanation –
As shown above, these industries (and a lot of others) can benefit from cloud computing. We now look closely at the benefits of cloud computing as a multi-facet technology.
IT is an inherent part of any organization these days and hence expenses on IT is inevitable. Further, IT is considered to be a cost-center in organizations and hence the aim is always to minimize the cost involved without affecting the quality and operational aspects. Cloud essentially helps organizations in doing that. It allows organizations to –
- Block less assets on IT infrastructure (And hence free up the capital for core operations)
- Spend less(or nothing!) on maintenance of these assets
- Save more on human capital spent on the IT functions
- Avoid the hassle of upgrading systems due to new technologies
Apart from these direct and most obvious benefits once draws from cloud computing there are other much obscure and inter-related benefits that can be derived from cloud computing. Some or most of these advantages are looked upon as drivers for macro-level business strategic decisions and processes.
- More, easier and cheaper collaboration of partners and teams across geographies leads to accelerated rate at which a company creates new services and products
- An edge over competitors and better consumer behaviour understanding through data mining capabilities
- Creating an environment for achieving excellence in core-operations and innovation due to better handling of support functions like IT and IT infrastructure
- It also allows smaller organizations to have a much needed helping hand to kick-off and perform and hence builds a roadway for large number of start-ups to come into play
However, all of this is not without its own share of doubts and concerns. There are few who disregards and others who distrust the capabilities and significance of cloud computing. There are of course several reasons which invokes concern about this technology and some of them do need contingency and mitigation plans to work with. We try to entail few of such concerns which have constantly been raised about cloud computing.
- Data Security – How secure is the data with the vendor?
- Data Privacy – Will the data held within the vendor’s infrastructure (hosting cloud which may or may not be public) be kept private?
- Cloud vendor-switch (vendor lock-in) flexibility – How will the switching between vendors be?
- Regulations and compliance – Whether cloud vendors will be able to satisfy government and agencies led regulations and compliance policies? Are these regulation and compliance are strict enough to ensure that there are no leakages, loss and privacy issues?
- Data Lineage – There is another set of people who are sceptic about the data lineage (Data lineage is the phenomenon of receiving exactly the same data which was once fed into the system
- Loss of control over IT operations - Though it is cited as a major benefit, few organization looks upon cloud computing as service which takes away the control from the parent organization and hence renders away with important decision making in that context
In-spite of the odds mentioned above which cloud computing must fight for its credibility and survival, the statement that cloud computing is here to stay, is no exaggeration. The advantages though seriously outweighs the disadvantages, certain steps must be taken in order to smooth-en the future of cloud computing –
- IT industry must demonstrate the strength and capabilities of cloud computing to its prospective user community and how the issues highlighted related to privacy, security and vendor lock-in can be addressed
- Government, in collaboration with prospective user community and cloud providers, must create a policy document which entails the regulations and compliances that must be fulfilled before the services can be requested or provided by either party
- Regular meetings must be scheduled by the responsible bodies in order to ensure that the bottlenecks be treated as soon as possible
- Further innovation must be encouraged by the government and IT industry keeping in mind evolving needs of customers
Cheers,
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