Cloud Computing – Why should we adopt it

“Cloud Computing” – it is becoming one of the buzz word; everyone is talking about it or writing about it. Some of them would like to understand it, use it, feel it and experience the Cloud phenomena.  In a broader sense, it’s an umbrella of services includes – SaaS, Virtualization (Infrastructure) and Cloud Platform itself i.e. Application based frameworks. It’s very puzzling to know that, Search engines (like Google) lists thousands of definitions for the cloud computing.

 

Since Cloud Computing is still at incubation stage and a lot evidence and demonstration is needed, in order to gain a complete confidence in moving the on-premises applications (core v/s non-core) to cloud. Microsoft, Google, Amazon and other private cloud players are emerging to fast with related products and service offerings in Cloud Computing.

Key Drivers for adopting cloud computing: (Source: Alsbridge cloud computing survey 2009)

1)     Demand for Flexibility in scaling IT services Up and Down

2)     Ability to roll out new services rapidly without the time and cost associated with setting up physical infrastructure

3)     The ability to reduce and manage costs is also a major driver

4)     Reliability is also seen as a key benefit and important driver

5)     The ability to prototype and experiment rapidly and at low cost brings significant advantages

 

Some of the sectors and why they should adopt a cloud are listed below (for quick gains):

• Large Enterprises → To Address Growth, Supply/Demand and Competition

• SMB → To play within budget constraints and have a quick Go-To Market

• Public Sector (PSU) → Compete with Private sector and improve services to Citizen

• Commercial establishments → Survivals and sustainability

• Outsources (IT / BPO service providers) → scale up and extend services across.

• Manufacturing, Pharmacy, Finance and Banking sector → Adopt Latest know-how.

• And Individuals / independent owner’s → obviously, live-in with World.

It’s predicted by various research firms that within next 5 years that cloud-based delivery would account for half of the current market. Commercial (Budget) pressure and technical maturity and infrastructure bottle-necks are some of the factors for cloud. The boundaries of on-premise and cloud application will become thin day-by-day, once adopted.

Cloud adoption need to address - very basic challenges via. Data access, security, protection, integration, measuring performance benchmarks, legal / regulatory issues, Investments/budgets, RIO and TCO (total cost of ownership).

In General, adoption and change is always a lengthy and painful process. If you look back at history, Diners Club of America issued the first credit cards in 1950; the adoption was limited to members and selected business establishments. At that time, people were skeptical about using these cards, as they had lot of fear of unknown, security and reliability. They said - it’s not going to work and various other reasons. But, today - the things have changed; we can’t leave without these credit cards. The same may hold true about Cloud Computing, tomorrow - No one wants to be on ground (on-premise), rather prefer to stay on Cloud…

So, Cloud computing is for everyone, today or later, one has to adopt it. Plan your journey to Cloud…NOW…

Comments

[Ramon Peypoch]

Sanjeev - I enjoyed reading your post! My company, Proofpoint, is a Gartner MQ Leader and provides a full range of SaaS email security and archiving solutions to enteprise customers. We are keen to explore strategic alliance relationships with leading consulting firms and managed services providers like Patni where we can jointly leverage our collective expertise in cloud computing and security and extend the services that you deliver to your customers. Would it make sense for us to speak about how we might work together?

best regards,
Ramon

[Sanjeev Samala]

Ramon,

Thanks for your comments.

Yes, we can discuss this.
Please send me your contact details or write to me @ sanjeev.samala@patni.com

[bpo]

great job.

[Irfan]

You have made some good points about why cloud computing should be adopted.
Sooner or later companies will have to move to cloud computing if they want to keep up with web technologies