Cloud Computing: Next Wave of Innovation in Computing Architecture

 IBM called it “on-demand computing”. Others have dubbed it “grid computing” and “software-as-a-service”. The latest name is “cloud computing”, Cloud computing has taken centre stage in the technology world and makes a lot of sense. 

If you own a small- to medium-sized business or are the CIO of a public- or private-sector organization, you will have to come to face with cloud computing sooner than you think. To get prepared, you will need to understand what cloud computing is and how best to integrate it into your computing strategy.

Gartner defines cloud computing as a style of computing where massively scalable IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service to external customers using Internet technologies. One IT-related function can be a software application. If the software application is written in such a way that it is “massively scalable”, then SaaS is considered a form of cloud computing (SaaS).

The basic idea of cloud computing is quite simple. Instead of data being stored on the PC, it is stored on a server on the Internet. User does not know, or care, where that server is located. In fact, the data might be scattered across a bunch of servers. It is all up in the sky someplace. Hence, the term “cloud”.

Cloud computing transforms computer processing, data storage, and software applications, allowing them to be delivered as a utility. Just like people tap into existing infrastructure for water or power, companies can now tap into a variety of services – applications, platforms, raw computing power and storage – all via the Internet. It is a style of computing in which IT-related capabilities are provided “as a service”. Users can access technology without knowledge of, expertise with, or control over the infrastructure that supports them. Cloud computing marks a fundamental change in the economics of technology. While pushing down the price of computing, it simultaneously expands the availability of computing resources. If you have a profile on Facebook or have used Gmail, you have leveraged cloud computing.

Aaron Katz, Area Vice-President, Corporate Sales, Asia Pacific Salesforce.com, explains what cloud computing is all about. “Cloud computing is a general concept that includes many things. In the case of salesforce.com, we see cloud computing as encompassing both Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), both well-known technology trends, in which the common theme is reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users. For example, Salesforce.com provides Force.com – a platform from where developers can build and deliver any application – all without buying or maintaining any infrastructure. These applications are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on salesforce.com’s servers. The Force.com Platform-as-a-Service provides the necessary building blocks to make cloud computing real for the enterprise,” says Aaron.

Kiran Datar, Managing Director, Cisco WebEx Technology Group, says, “Cloud computing is a broader concept than utility computing and relates to the underlying architecture in which the services are designed. It may be applied equally to utility services and internal corporate data centres, as George Gilder reported in a story for Wired Magazine titled The Information Factories. Wall Street firms have been implementing internal clouds for years. They call it“‘grid computing’, but the concepts are the same.”

With the advent of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in the technology firmament, enterprise CIOs have one more buzzword to contend with and another set of vendors promising that their product will be the panacea for all ills.

Of the latter, salesforce.com is arguably one of the most well-known names in the on-demand market, and has made inroads into the Indian market. The global market for on-demand products is exploding, with Salesforce estimating Western Europe’s share of the market alone to be worth US$473 million by 2011.

On-demand services and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions have become the preferred mechanisms for organizations to better leverage the power of technology. Rather than contend with the endless hassles and escalating costs historically associated with traditional, on-premise, hardware and software products, today’s on- demand services and SaaS solutions enable organizations to more quickly and cost- effectively harness technology to achieve their business objectives.

On-demand services and SaaS solutions capitalize on the ubiquity and real-time availability of the web to deliver a new breed of business applications that offer greater collaboration and productivity features via a “pay-as-you-go” subscription fee structure. These solutions also eliminate the infrastructure, installation, maintenance and support costs of the past. Organizations no longer have to acquire additional hardware or hire additional staff to support their business requirements. Instead, the SaaS provider assumes this responsibility as a part of guaranteeing the availability and performance of its solutions.

“With the rapid evolution of the SaaS movement, the primary focus of individual SaaS providers has been on developing specific point solutions which can be combined into broader, transaction-oriented packages,” says Kiran Datar, “SaaS is really a subset of the entire cloud phenomenon. So greater adoption and success of SaaS will drive cloud services,” adds Kiran Datar.

Cisco offers a Software-as-a-Service version of its WebEx collaboration software, called WebEx Connect. The combination of escalating customer demands for more powerful collaborative solutions, the availability of more dynamic web services and the success of partner ecosystems have inspired Cisco to create the WebEx Connect platform for multidimensional and cross-organizational collaboration.

WebEx Connect will enable an ecosystem of ISVs to create new, composite applications that can be delivered on-demand via the web to support collaboration across multiple organizations. The applications will reside on a shared network, leverage common APIs, utilize a standard user interface, permit business process integration and allow secure data access. WebEx Connect will enable ISVs and developers to leverage rich development services to create a comprehensive set of on-demand collaboration, workflow integration and cross-organizational data access services.

An important differentiator of the WebEx Connect ecosystem is that it will not confine the targets or sources of data, nor require that all applications are “on-demand”, unlike other platforms that require data migration to a proprietary source. It will also extract relevant data and content from existing on-demand or on-premises applications, such as CRM and ERP, to allow workers to collaborate across departments and organizations.

In addition to leveraging the WebEx global service delivery network, applications and development platform, Connect partners and developers will gain access to the WebEx customer base of over 25,000 companies and nearly 2 million registered users, as well as the approximately 3.5 million people who use WebEx services every month.

Salesforce.com is the leader in enterprise cloud computing. While there are clouds that focus on computing power (like Amazon), clouds that focus on office productivity like (Google Apps), and clouds that focus on social networking (like Facebook), salesforce.com is focussed on bringing the cloud and all its benefits to businesses. Salesforce.com’s core CRM application brings all the benefits of the Internet to managing every step of a company’s interaction with a customer, while its Force.com platform delivers reliability, security and core infrastructure that the Salesforce CRM product is built on to developers. The company is constantly innovating to enhance customer and developer success in the cloud. During Dreamforce 2008, salesforce.com’s sixth annual User and Developer conference held in November 2008 in San Francisco, salesforce.com made several significant new technology and product announcements pertaining to Cloud Computing for the Enterprise.

“For internal IT departments, we envision that the Force.com platform will completely change the role of IT departments. The break-fix-patch-upgrade components of IT will become irrelevant, because with the cloud everyone runs on one shared infrastructure and one version. It also creates a new role for IT departments: innovation. When you can develop, deploy and run apps in the cloud, without having to worry about buying and maintaining hardware and software, you can focus on adding value to the business,” says Aaron.

Companies of all sizes are contending with a combination of market trends, which are forcing them to seriously re-evaluate how they do business. These forces include growing globalization, lower customer loyalty and widening dispersion of today’s workforce.

With increasing globalization and mobility, as well as escalating competitive forces and corporate productivity requirements, corporations of all sizes have started to re-think how they should operate. At the same time, a combination of rapidly-changing customer expectations and radically different technological advancements is driving a new generation of on-demand services which are transforming the way organizations operate and innovate.

“We are still in the preliminary phase and it is only when the people are fully aware about the concept and ready to adopt the same is when usage of solutions on cloud computing will actually pick up,” says Kiran. The concept of cloud computing and its tremendous benefits for enterprises in terms of scalability and cost savings are fairly well understood now in the IT community in India. Companies no longer must purchase every piece of hardware needed to plan for potential business needs. Now buyers can understand that this flexibility is available for software applications as well.

“Over the last few years, we have built out an amazing platform strategy, and introduced Force.com. Force.com provides the building blocks necessary to build any kind of business app, simple or sophisticated – and automatically deploy them as a service. Today, we have more than 800 applications that have been built on Force.com by customers, partners and employees,” says Aaron.

EMC has revealed more of its plans for cloud computing and its move into consumer devices, alongside plans to integrate more high-end storage technologies throughout its product ranges.During EMC World in Las Vegas in May this year, company executives discussed EMC’s new Cloud Computing division, its plans for the pending acquisition of drive vendor Iomega, and highlighted some of the advanced technologies that it expects to introduce to its wider product range in the near future.

During his keynote address at the event, the Company President, Chairman & CEO, Joe Tucci, gave some details on the recently formed Cloud Computing Services and Infrastructure division, which will lead efforts to provide storage as a service and other online initiatives. The cloud computing division will include the Mozy service, which is already providing online backup services to enterprises, small businesses and end-users, mainly in the US, and the company plans to expand the Mozy service to Europe and other regions in the near future.

With the announcement of Windows Azure, Microsoft has made its play for cloud computing. The Azure service platform will consist of Windows Azure, Microsoft SQL Services for database services and reporting, Microsoft .NET Services, Live Services for users to store data across different platforms and Microsoft SharePoint Services and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Services for content and collaboration services. Microsoft has been building its data centre infrastructure to support more cloud-based computing, to help it compete with leading players in the sector like Google and Amazon. A key point of Azure, according to Ozzie, is that it will allow developers to use their existing skills in technologies such as .NET and Visual Studio to create new cloud applications for PC, web or phone.

The Bottom line 
Companies will migrate existing computing chores from their own data centres and over to cloud computing. The benefits of cloud computing are numerous, being cheaper the prominent one. According to IDC, a move to the cloud might cut computing costs in half. IDC estimates that spending on cloud computing will boom to $42 billion in 2012 from $16 billion this year. “The cloud is really the foundation for the next 20 years of the IT industry,” says an analyst at IDC.