Cloud Computing – what’s your point of view?
Jun 18th, 2009 by Philip Meese
The term Cloud Computing is being used expansively, as is the pattern with named evolutions in technology. Like the proverbial six blind men and the elephant, it is described differently depending on what it appears to be when you reach out and touch it.
To some, it’s elastic computing, to others, utility computing or a hosted database development platform. Yet others promote SaaS and hosted applications as the Cloud. Like a lot of things, what Cloud computing is really depends on you. And that’s a good thing.
Our point of view is in line with Serguei Beloussov, the CEO of Parallels, who recently said "We believe one of the key advantages of service clouds is the ability to offer a complete suite of applications, You have to be a one-stop shop.” (article ). We agree that a single platform, where all your applications are hosted, holds value for many midsized enterprises. These organizations would otherwise struggle to properly support, or simply pay too much, for their computing platforms. The EasyOffice is a "one-stop shop" where common applications as well as your line-of-business applications, that you’ve chosen to run your business, are all hosted on one platform.
The varying forms of Cloud Computing are useful to different firms for different reasons. As part of your technology strategy, consider what value is offered by these varying models and develop a total cost of ownership model for your computing infrastructure. Make sure your TCO model includes critical "intangibles" like the cost of management focus on IT. Then decide how the Cloud should look to you.
Happy Cloud Computing!
