Exploring an infant technology

There has been a lot of hype around the new technology known as cloud computing, but be warned it is still in its infant stages and a certain amount of scepticism would be a wise precaution when reading about it in the media.

There are many different definitions of the term floating around, but one that seems to define it the best is described by Aaron Skonnard as a "Virtual computing platform that you can leverage on and save money with, [in] a Pay as you go/use format".  There are already many providers of this technology on the market racing to get a hand into the market.  A few of the key advantages of this technology include no setup overheads and no contracts since you can pay by credit card.  They require no maintenance from your in-house development team and should provide a ubiquitous service; constantly available and geo-located. 

Some of the mainstream brands include Amazon Web Services, Google and the upcoming Microsoft Azure platform.  Each with their own set of intricate differentiators to make them stand out in the crowd. 
For instance:

• Amazon allows configurable server instances on their cloud.
• Google allows full use of its web applications if you write the code in python.
• Azure will be providing not just web based support but also Windows desktop application support in its cloud and boast .NET framework, SQL Server database and SharePoint support.

User requirements

All a user should need is a network connection to the web, hence the 'cloud', and a computer.  In theory, no other hardware or software should be required to reap the benefits. 
There are some main areas that cloud computing covers which include:

• Application clouds or SaaS (Software as a Service) whereby an application is packaged as a service and used from a cloud
  
• Platform clouds or PaaS (Platform as a Service) whereby a platform like the .NET framework is hoisted up onto a cloud.

Start-up companies will not need to worry about their infrastructural needs or think about the scalability of their equipment because the cloud provider can plan for and mitigate the risks.

Finally

There are still many challenges that cloud computing has to resolve before it becomes the norm.  These include the ability to customise software or hardware specific to enterprise needs.  There are uptime issues to consider too, for instance the service can't be 100% reliable.  However, how does this compare to current, standard uptime in your own data centres?
There are also issues relating to data protection and data exit; cloud providers need to ensure sufficient data security and protection measures are in place as well as giving clients the ability to remove the data as soon as the service agreement is terminated.  Additionally, there is a concern regarding data transfer; at the current speed and cost of the internet, it would probably be more practical to send data via secure mail rather than stream terabyte plus of data across the web. 

If all these issues are correctly addressed this will provide businesses with a very different perspective on utilising low cost technology to streamline their operations.