Is cloud computing right for your business?

Before you consider Cloud computing you should probably consider a few things:

• What are the viable paths to move legacy systems to the cloud?
• Are there architectual changes that need to happen between cloud and non cloud applications for them to talk to each other?
• Will the cloud computing change current technology and operational process?
• Do you go with a private cloud or a public/ hosted cloud?
• And I guess for some countries around the world, will your bandwidth allow for fast and flexible cloud computing?
• Do you have the security aspect covered?
• What happens if the internet connection goes down, do all users go down or do you have a contingency in place?

Does anyone really know what “cloud computing” is apart from a lot of hype?
It’s time vendors actually started stating the reason for the creation of their solution and what functions resolve which real user problems. Saying cloud computing is the answer to the new world is a bit like someone in the 1950′s saying I have invented a TV. So what? What does the TV do? How many people knew back then that it would revolutionize the world’s movie industry and become a household standard. But TV is just the delivery mechanism and the real value comes from the entertainment that is derived through the pictures that are transmitted worldwide. So in my view the TV was to our social communities what cloud computing is to our business communities today.
Those that have and do generate their revenues from the TV industry can be likened to the new vendors that wish to generate revenues from cloud computing. In the same way that ratings drive dollars into the coffers of the top studios, so ratings will drive dollars into the hands of those vendors that create the relevant content for the new world of cloud computing. Create rubbish and people won’t stick around.   Create great quality and not only will your clients stick around, but could also create the equivalent of the viral marketing holy grail of word of mouth around your product.
It’s also about mass appeal. Let’s face it, the shenanigans of the Ewing family in “Dallas” was a load of rubbish (for those that are old enough to have watched it) but engrossed the world to such an extent that it made the studio billions of dollars and the stars of the show world famous. So clearly not everyone agrees with my amateur TV critic’s view that it would have been more interesting to watch paint dry. But that’s the great thing of this massive cloud computing democracy we have created – to me the lesson is to get the product right for the mass market, because that’s where the revenues will be found, and if you get it wrong, people will vote with their mice and find someone else in the cloud. The Long Tail springs to mind.
From what I have read and now come to understand, not fully I must add, cloud computing is a computing model not a technology. In this model of computing, all the servers, networks, applications and other elements related to data centers are made available to IT and end users via the Internet.
I would challenge the reader of this blogs to add to the comments their favorite cloud apps & the ones that disappointed you the most.
My head is in the Clouds!
Photo by: mansikka