Cloud computing - Benefits & Barriers
Thursday, September 17, 2009
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In today's article we will discuss about the benefits of adopting the cloud way and the transitional barriers we face.
Benefits:
1) Economy of Scale
With infrastructure and platform as services, enterprises need not worry about building their own infrastructure anymore. The cloud will be able to provide the necessary resources on need basis without any hassles and the whole process will be very seamless. Also, actual provisioning of resources will not be a time consuming activity.
2) Pay per use
Utility charging is another important advantage of using the cloud infrastructure. The enterprises need not provision for the peak usages, rather they can consume all the necessary resources on need basis, and more importantly, pay-only-per-use. This would result in enormous cost savings for huge enterprises.
3) Speed to market
As we discussed earlier, the rate of evolution of a system solely depends on the rate of evolution of its sub systems. Immediate access to enough and stable resources will reduce the development time.
4) Focus on core activity
This is another fringe benefit of going the cloud way. I guess, there is no need to reiterate the reasons behind this benefit.
5) Efficient supply/demand balance
By using the cloud infrastructure, the enterprises need not worry about the supply/demand cycle and the necessary resources. Because, the cloud is capable of providing you the necessary resources on need basis and this allows rapid expansion.
These benefits are very lucrative, and we already have many mainstream service providers. For example, Amazon provides infrastructure clouds, Google provides their application engine as a platform cloud, etc,. Still, I'd say that cloud computing is an emerging technology and it has its own inherent risks.
Risks:
The major risk in using the services offered by cloud providers is the amount of uncertainty it brings along. Cloud computing is a relatively new technology and there are no standard policies yet. You're bound to take up the service continuously once you start mainly because of the different standards followed by different vendors.
Another key aspect is the traditional way of product selection based on features is not relevant here. If the features of a particular service [at least the infrastructure and platform layers] is not standardized, the consumers are left with no other choice. They are bound to use the same service, and mainly they do not have any backup since they cannot switch over to another service so easily because of the different features.
Once when we have standardized features across services, the consumers will have more independence and certainty, and they can select the service purely based on price and quality of service. Basically, we should take the clouds in to operational competition rather than feature competition. With this said, the following are the inherent risks associated with clouds.
1) Management
2) Trust in vendors
3) Transparency
3.1. Multiple relationships
Cloud computing in action might involve multiple providers than one might actually know. This essentially develops a pyramid of suppliers and consumers built on top of each other. A top level consumer will know only about his provider, he will not have any idea about the other providers who provide services consumed by his direct provider. So, he may not exactly know the involved parties or cannot exhibit any sort of control over them. The problem with any provider in the pyramid will impact all others sitting on top of that provider and our top level consumer will have no idea about the actual problem.
4) Transition
4.1. Security of supply
If a provider leaves the business, then all of the consumers of that provider will also get affected. Transition between providers is not so easy because of the obvious reasons we discussed earlier.
5) General risks in outsourcing
On top of these risks, all the consumers face the generic risks we all face whenever we outsource a subsystem.
5.1. Suitability
5.2. Pricing
5.3. Backup / switching facility
5.4. Lock-in
All of these risks are transitional barriers in the cloud computing industry.
Benefits:
1) Economy of Scale
With infrastructure and platform as services, enterprises need not worry about building their own infrastructure anymore. The cloud will be able to provide the necessary resources on need basis without any hassles and the whole process will be very seamless. Also, actual provisioning of resources will not be a time consuming activity.
2) Pay per use
Utility charging is another important advantage of using the cloud infrastructure. The enterprises need not provision for the peak usages, rather they can consume all the necessary resources on need basis, and more importantly, pay-only-per-use. This would result in enormous cost savings for huge enterprises.
3) Speed to market
As we discussed earlier, the rate of evolution of a system solely depends on the rate of evolution of its sub systems. Immediate access to enough and stable resources will reduce the development time.
4) Focus on core activity
This is another fringe benefit of going the cloud way. I guess, there is no need to reiterate the reasons behind this benefit.
5) Efficient supply/demand balance
By using the cloud infrastructure, the enterprises need not worry about the supply/demand cycle and the necessary resources. Because, the cloud is capable of providing you the necessary resources on need basis and this allows rapid expansion.
These benefits are very lucrative, and we already have many mainstream service providers. For example, Amazon provides infrastructure clouds, Google provides their application engine as a platform cloud, etc,. Still, I'd say that cloud computing is an emerging technology and it has its own inherent risks.
Risks:
The major risk in using the services offered by cloud providers is the amount of uncertainty it brings along. Cloud computing is a relatively new technology and there are no standard policies yet. You're bound to take up the service continuously once you start mainly because of the different standards followed by different vendors.
Another key aspect is the traditional way of product selection based on features is not relevant here. If the features of a particular service [at least the infrastructure and platform layers] is not standardized, the consumers are left with no other choice. They are bound to use the same service, and mainly they do not have any backup since they cannot switch over to another service so easily because of the different features.
Once when we have standardized features across services, the consumers will have more independence and certainty, and they can select the service purely based on price and quality of service. Basically, we should take the clouds in to operational competition rather than feature competition. With this said, the following are the inherent risks associated with clouds.
1) Management
2) Trust in vendors
3) Transparency
3.1. Multiple relationships
Cloud computing in action might involve multiple providers than one might actually know. This essentially develops a pyramid of suppliers and consumers built on top of each other. A top level consumer will know only about his provider, he will not have any idea about the other providers who provide services consumed by his direct provider. So, he may not exactly know the involved parties or cannot exhibit any sort of control over them. The problem with any provider in the pyramid will impact all others sitting on top of that provider and our top level consumer will have no idea about the actual problem.
4) Transition
4.1. Security of supply
If a provider leaves the business, then all of the consumers of that provider will also get affected. Transition between providers is not so easy because of the obvious reasons we discussed earlier.
5) General risks in outsourcing
On top of these risks, all the consumers face the generic risks we all face whenever we outsource a subsystem.
5.1. Suitability
5.2. Pricing
5.3. Backup / switching facility
5.4. Lock-in
All of these risks are transitional barriers in the cloud computing industry.
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