If you are in business chances are you have at least heard of the term ‘cloud computing’ – but what does it actually mean? ‘The cloud’ refers to the Internet, based on the cloud picture often used to represent the Internet in computer network diagrams.
‘Cloud computing’ is when a business or organisation conducts its computing through the Internet, using computer resources which are shared by many other parties. Obviously this is a different way of doing things compared to the traditional method of computing by businesses – i.e. local PC/s at the physical address of the organisation housing software and storage.
The concept generally uses combinations of Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform (PaaS) and software (SaaS). A classic example is the Google model where users have their own email, instant messaging and calendar as part of ‘Gmail’ service, all instantly accessed through an Internet connection, but housed on a server perhaps on the other side of the planet.
Using ‘the cloud’ makes perfect sense for many businesses and has many apparent advantages. In a lot of work places – computer users don’t have expertise in the computer infrastructure and don’t really need to be controlling it. Dealing with issues maintenance and problems of a locally housed IT infrastructure can be a real headache for many business owners and employees, drawing them away from their core activities in the business and affecting the ability of the business to go about its core function of making profit. Obviously employing someone to take care of these problems has a significant cost factor for a business.
‘Cloud computing’ removes the need for computer users in a business to have expertise, control over, or maintenance of their IT infrastructure. Cloud computing providers deliver standard business applications online, which businesses can then access from a web browser giving them access to their software and data which is stored on servers elsewhere – which could be anywhere on the planet.
The other great benefit of cloud computing is its efficiency. Because it becomes an operating expense as opposed not a capital expense, it resembles a utility service (e.g. electricity) so a business only pays for what it uses – this removes the massive expense of infrastructure so lowers barriers to entry. And because a business shares the available cloud resources (like a multi-tenancy), it improves utilisation rates (i.e. servers aren’t left idle unnecessarily) lowers costs due to centralisation of the infrastructure and offers greater ability to handle peak load capacity. Cloud computing is also scalable – a business can increase or reduce its usage depending on requirements therefore again removing inefficiencies of usage.
There is also the issue of security – if your office burns down/is broken into – the remote nature of cloud computing offers an obvious benefit. While it sounds – and is – a compelling step for business – it is not always the best solution for a business and in many cases there is still a better case to argue for a business maintaining and housing its own IT infrastructure. Origin IT not only offers a bespoke Cloud offering to its clients, but is also very well placed to advise you on the pros and cons for your business of entering the world of Cloud Computing.
David Burns is BDM for Origin IT | davidb@originit.co.nz | www.originit.co.nz
