The rise of Cloud Computing

No longer just a vague concept, the term “cloud computing” is being thrown around with increasing frequency. In a nutshell, cloud competing is becoming popular because it offers economic solutions to many standard problems associated with both wired and fixed line comminations platforms.

Generally speaking, cloud computing at the consumer level, the concept of cloud computing is receiving increasing buzz due to the concept gaining significant traction with business.

For example, a recent report from the Yankee Group suggests that “a quarter of large US enterprises expect at least a third of their infrastructure to shift to cloud computing is on the verge of becoming mainstream in businesses (as is probably the case already).

A business example of cloud computing technology applied for call centres.  ‘Cloud’ makes mobile workers agile – they can work from home or on the road with calls, SMS and emails being sent and received as though they were sitting in the call centre. Calls can be routed to any phone nearby including mobiles (or even a hotel room in Singapore) so it becomes imperceptible to customers where the mobile worker is.

Sales people can navigate to meetings faster, access real time news and place orders totally outside the office. The road warrior becomes a powerhouse of communication and connections. In some cases a road warrior can be more connected and productive outside the office than in as the technology streamlines interactions and actions

At a personal level, if for example you have a webmail account, like Gmail or Hotmail, you are using a cloud computing, you don’t need to have an email application installed on your computer. The email application is Internet based, the send and receive functions are Internet based, and all of your information is stored on remote servers that could be thousands of kilometres from where you are located.

is not without its disadvantages, and chief among them is security. Some of the services being ported to cloud computing (remote collaboration, for example) can include highly sensitive information that companies would be loathe to have stolen and shared with the public.

Even with the most sophisticated of security systems, there are always going to be hackers gaining access to confidential company data, regardless of where this information is housed. However, for IT decision makers who are already cautious with the concept of sensitive company information existing “in the cloud”, the Twitter experience certainly gives them a “told you so” argument.

Despite the concern around security, it is clear that cloud computing is only going to continue gaining momentum, largely because the economics are favourable.