One of the major objections to cloud computing has been that it is not secure enough. There is some truth to it and it is not an easy matter to secure an entire enterprise in a public cloud. Given all the apprehensions about the security, privacy, legislation involved, it is safe to say that the deployment of public cloud computing in large enterprises remains a distant dream.
Having said that, I believe the public cloud can greatly benefit the individuals. Cost of ownership of a computer today is unnecessarily high for all the well known reasons. Having to pay only for the computing power, software licenses, storage and networking bandwidth that I actually use is a very compelling proposition. I think over a period of time people will begin to realize the value in cloud computing, just as they did when utility companies began to deliver electricity to the homes. There are some concerns that cloud computing could lead to loss of freedom to choose, but I think those can be managed by proper legislation and also by developing open cloud standards and bill of rights (http://wiki.cloudcommunity.org/wiki/Cloud_Computing_Manifesto).
Private clouds can benefit large enterprises which invest in enormous computing power, network bandwidth and storage. Companies like IBM are developing tools and technology to make it happen. Private clouds will address the security and privacy issues as well as the risk of cloud hosting company going down under. Given a large enough enterprise, private cloud computing can be as cost effective as public cloud computing.
Entities that can benefit from cloud computing:
Large enterprises
Defense organizations
Government agencies
NGOs
Ravi Kulkarni
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Pay as you go
I read Dave Malcolm Surgient's blog on the characteristics of cloud computing. As cloud computing still remains nebulous, this kind of clarity helps everyone understand it a little better. He talks about five characteristics, which I list here:
Characteristic 1: Dynamic computing infrastructure
Characteristic 2: IT service-centric approach
Characteristic 3: Self-service based usage model
Characteristic 4: Minimally or self-managed platform
Characteristic 5: Consumption-based billing
I was particularly struck by Consumption-based billing. What a great idea! When was the last time you paid for a generator installed by your utility? When was the last time you paid for the cable laid by your cable television company? And yet we continue to pay for the CPUs, the hard disks, the network interfaces. Not to mention all the junk that the Microsofts, the Ciscos, the Intels and the rest of them want to put on your PC. If you ever looked at the services running you will notice that most of them are never used. Most of the computing power we purchase is never used.
Imagine if you only need to pay for what you use. Imagine a world where you could plug in a simple device and begin to use the IT service just as you would electricity or a telephone service. You only pay for the storage, processing and the network bandwidth usage. In addition, unlike electricity or cable, you have many competing companies to choose from. This service will be available where ever you are, not just at home.
As an extension, you only pay for software when you use it. ALL computing services will be metered on a pay-as-you-go basis rather than a license per copy with fat yearly support fees. If you are using open source products, there is no need to pay for them ever!
I know this will greatly upset the establishment, such as Microsoft and Oracle. So be it. For too long they have ruled the IT world with outsized profits. Monopolies rule the enterprise and desktop software. This can not go on forever. The open source community has matured sufficiently now that we can do a lot of computing without buying anything from Microsoft or Oracle.
Characteristic 1: Dynamic computing infrastructure
Characteristic 2: IT service-centric approach
Characteristic 3: Self-service based usage model
Characteristic 4: Minimally or self-managed platform
Characteristic 5: Consumption-based billing
I was particularly struck by Consumption-based billing. What a great idea! When was the last time you paid for a generator installed by your utility? When was the last time you paid for the cable laid by your cable television company? And yet we continue to pay for the CPUs, the hard disks, the network interfaces. Not to mention all the junk that the Microsofts, the Ciscos, the Intels and the rest of them want to put on your PC. If you ever looked at the services running you will notice that most of them are never used. Most of the computing power we purchase is never used.
Imagine if you only need to pay for what you use. Imagine a world where you could plug in a simple device and begin to use the IT service just as you would electricity or a telephone service. You only pay for the storage, processing and the network bandwidth usage. In addition, unlike electricity or cable, you have many competing companies to choose from. This service will be available where ever you are, not just at home.
As an extension, you only pay for software when you use it. ALL computing services will be metered on a pay-as-you-go basis rather than a license per copy with fat yearly support fees. If you are using open source products, there is no need to pay for them ever!
I know this will greatly upset the establishment, such as Microsoft and Oracle. So be it. For too long they have ruled the IT world with outsized profits. Monopolies rule the enterprise and desktop software. This can not go on forever. The open source community has matured sufficiently now that we can do a lot of computing without buying anything from Microsoft or Oracle.
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