Top 5 Cloud Computing articles
Organisations moving to the cloud are doing so because the shared infrastructure is cheaper and more flexible than conventional forms of technology.
Sharing information technology is well established among universities and research institutes; from the British government-funded education computer network, Janet (UK), to small research clusters, they have been pooling resources since computers first went online. Many academics predict cloud computing could take this collaboration to another level, but in what areas does it offer the greatest potential for higher education?
Leading experts in technology and higher education recently gathered at a Guardian roundtable to discuss the issue - concerns over data security and lack of control of data were issues that were highlighted by the panel but in a tough funding environment, such initiatives can only become more commonplace. And cloud computing is likely to be one of the main beneficiaries, as universities strive to do more with less.
The 'Largest ever deal' for Google according to BBC's Tim Weber. A large bank were probably one of the least likely to be making such a bold move considering security concerns around data. But the bank stressed that all customer data and other key banking systems would "stay in our own data centres" and be completely separate from the cloud solution.
Traditionally, companies have done all their computing on their own premises, to keep their data secure and to stay in control.
However, most enterprises leave some 80% of their computing power idle, and find themselves spending more than two thirds of their information technology budget on maintenance and software upgrades.
Cloud computing tends to be much more efficient, with firms like Amazon Web Services running their servers at more than 90% of capacity. That cuts cost and also helps the environment.
Information Week Editor in Chief Rob Preston takes a bullish approach to forecasted IT spending for 2012 unlike Gartner who have revised their forecast downward from 4.6% to 3.7% growth.
The 5 core areas that are driving IT spending according to the Information Week Survey are:
Mobile
Big Data
Cloud Computing
Data Center Infrastructure
Social
The Outlook 2012 survey results can be downloaded here.
The move to cloud computing is undoing a lot of the good work that IT managers have done over the past decade to enable solutions based on open standards that can be built, supported and replaced, regardless of vendor.
According to Ed English, Dell’s EMEA marketing director for next-generation computing solutions, cloud is allowing some enterprise IT vendors to shoehorn their proprietary technology back into the data centre.
“Companies and IT managers alike have worked very hard to drive more flexibility and more interoperability into the data centre. It started at the desktop level, but it’s now permeating the data centre as well. There is this big shift from proprietary to open,” said English.
Cloud providers are in no rush to make things more open, as keeping things proprietary locks consumers into their environment.
It’s no surprise that many cloud experts predict that mobile cloud computing will become increasingly important in 2012. Given the numbers of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices shipped every day, more and more users are relying on the cloud as the main driver for satisfying their computing needs, whether it is data storage, applications or infrastructure.
Smartphone sales have boomed and forecasts indicate this will increase in 2012. Additionally the application of smartphones in industry and corporate settings is supporting increased sales. Previously, the Blackberry was virtually the only accepted corporate smartphone platform. This is changing fast, as both iPhones and Android (and presumably Windows Phone) are being adopted in corporate settings.
“Visiongain” expect mobile cloud services to reach $45 billion in 2016. The greatest revenue contributions will come from mobile cloud apps, driven by increasing smartphone penetration, growth of 3G network coverage across the globe and deployment of 4G/LTE services.
