Well, we've had a few years of "cloud seeding" with a lot of hype and some reasonable applications. However, let's think about it a bit.
What is Cloud computing?
For those who may not have heard this term, or haven't found an explanation - here's mine. Cloud computing is where you are accessing an application or service via the Web and you data resides on their servers. Usually, all you need is a PC with Internet connectivity and you're off and running. Sometimes you download some code or the like, but true cloud computing means you should be able to access your service using any PC with Internet connectivity.
The Pro's
If you are an individual or small company, then a service provided via the cloud can be very cost effective. You do not need to invest in any new hardware or software. You do not need to worry about backing up your data or disaster recovery (read the Con's before disagreeing). You can usually scale the service up and down to meet your business needs. Quite often you can get access to a quality of service that you would not be able to afford.
You get things up and running much quicker than the conventional approach of buy, install, deploy. You do not need to worry about upgrades or whether you have sufficient licences.
Seems like a pretty sweet deal...
The Con's
A recent (October 2009) incident in the USA has highlighted at least one significant pitfall. A Telco offered a cloud data storage service via a third party. The third party was acquired by Microsoft. The service at some point after the acquisition went "down"... and stayed down. Yes, that's right. If your business was relying on accessing this data - say goodnight sweetheart. It appears that Microsoft has recovered most of the data - some weeks later. So for those people storing photos and other non-time critical data - fine.
It is harder to integrate cloud services with those on you PC and with other cloud services. Whilst I am hopeful that some agreed integration standard will be devised - it's not here yet.
What happens if the service provider decides to increase your costs? At some point they probably will - you just need to have a plan B when they do. Do you stay with them? At what point will you "pull the plug". Indeed, can you pull the plug?
Summing Up
Cloud computing can be of great benefit to smaller organisations - or even larger ones if it is supplying a non-critical service (like on-line training). If you have a small business and are considering adopting a cloud service, do yourself a favour and see if you can periodically download your data. Also see what download formats are available, so that the data is easily usable if need be.
I think the Microsoft incident has probably put the brakes on a lot of organisations who were considering taking up cloud computing services. Perhaps the best way forward is for larger organisations to adopt cloud computing as an internal model within their organisation to reduce the cost of maintaining PC's on everyone's desk - but that's another story.
