The Winds Of Change Are Blowing In The Clouds Favor
First Published Tuesday, 9th March 2010 03:06 pm from Xand : Landon Long
The opinions expressed by this blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone, this does not reflect the opinion of Automated Trader or any employee thereof. Automated Trader is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by this article.
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A few years back, if you asked your IT professionals
about Cloud Computing, you probably would have received a blank
stare, followed up with an "I love my
servers" comment. At that time, even the term
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing"
target="_blank">Cloud Computing" was
plagued by confusion, uncertainty and a fair amount of
misinformation.
src="http://cdn.xignite.com/blog/01_25_10/data_from_the_cloud_v1a.jpg"
alt="" width="215" height="200" align="left" />Early
misconceptions were further reinforced by the many
'cloud flavors' being lumped into one term,
SaaS, PaaS, utility computing, virtualized computing, managed
services, resource computing, elastic computing and so on. Many
concluded that Cloud Computing was more a buzzword than a
definable technology.
Today, that is no longer
the case, with an overwhelming consensus affirming that the winds
of change are blowing in the clouds favor. The
desire to move into the clouds is quickly
turning into a necessity, with a wide range
of internal and external forces leading the charge. Redundancy,
efficiency, availability, simplicity, stability or plain
& simple economics, every entity has its own unique set
of reasons for moving into the clouds. With its inherent time and
cost benefits, It's no surprise that there is a growing
wave of support for Cloud Computing, with some of that support
coming from some unlikely places.
Recently, a once
href="http://www.gartner.com/technology/home.jsp"
target="_blank">Gartner highlighted the benefits of
href="http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/01/gartner_virtual.html"
target="_blank">stating; "The technologies
that CIOs are prioritizing in 2010 are technologies that can be
implemented quickly and without significant upfront expense,
instead of investing millions of dollars to get millions in
benefits, with these technologies, up front investments are
measured in thousands of dollars to get those same
benefits". href="http://nebula.nasa.gov">
src="http://cdn.xignite.com/blog/01_25_10/nasa_nebula_site_screenshot_v2a.jpg"
alt="NASA's NEBULA Cloud Computing Website" width="214"
height="153" align="right" /> In the title="Gartner: 2010 CIO Report" rel="no-follow"
href="http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1283413"
target="_blank">same report, where the opinions of
1586 CIO's were polled, it was discovered that there
has been a dramatic shift in global technical priorities.
Amazingly, the #1 technological priority for the past five years
has all but dropped off the list, being replaced by
Virtualization & Cloud Computing.
In
addition to the CIO's of the world, another area where
Cloud Computing is gaining serious momentum is within the U.S.
Government. It is clear that one of the world's largest
political entities is doing more than assessing the clouds
viability, but rather, running down the path towards broad
target="_blank">revealing interview with Information
Week, Obama's Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra
stated: "The cloud computing investment in the 2010
budget reflects the administration's desire to drive
down costs, drive innovation across the federal government, [and]
make sure we're making available technologies to the
workforce".
While the executive
branch of the Government is currently in the late planning to
early implementation stages, other agencies within the government
have already moved into the clouds.
href="http://www.aps.gov">
src="http://cdn.xignite.com/blog/01_25_10/apps_gov_screenshot_v2a.jpg"
alt="GSA's Apps.gov Cloud Computing Marketplace" width="196"
height="166" align="left" />Among the front-runners
target="_blank">NEBULA Cloud Computing Project, the
Defense Information Systems Agencies
href="http://www.disa.mil/news/pressreleases/2009/race_100509.html"
target="_blank">DoD RACE Cloud, the Department of
target="_blank">Cloud Strategy, and a handful of
other agency-drive initiatives. One of the more exciting
target="_blank">GSA's approach to
centralizing approved Cloud Computing Vendors, as well as plans
for the agency to become the central clearinghouse for government
backed private, public and semi-public cloud based applications
and computing capabilities. href="http://www.aps.gov">To jump-start this effort,
the Obama Administration, in conjunction with the GSA, launched
target="_blank">www.APPS.gov, an all new centralized
government storefront for everything cloud service related. It is
apparent that cloud based technologies are becoming so prolific,
even the U.S. Government is getting on-board!
While private, public and governmental initiatives are a
good sign of progress in the Cloud Services segment, other
sure-fire indicators include innovation and investment. In
addition to the hundreds of millions invested by leading title="The Standard: 10 Cloud Computing Companies to Watch"
rel="no-follow"
href="http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/05/17/10-cloud-computing-companies-watch"
target="_blank">cloud service providers like Amazon,
Google and others, Microsoft and HP have put their hats into the
ring with a USD $250 million investment in Cloud Computing. This
href="http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/1246164"
target="_blank">extended partnership is aimed at
building a new cloud based
'infrastructure-to-application' service that
will "transform the way large enterprises deliver
services to their customers", tackling both the
expansion and innovation of cloud services in a single leap.
href="http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2010/jan10/01-13InfToAppPR.mspx"
target="_blank">Steve Balmer; "This agreement, which
spans hardware, software and services, will enable business
customers to optimize performance with push-button simplicity at
the lowest-possible total cost of ownership".
Worldwide, there are countless examples of how Cloud
Services are re-shaping the way we think about our computing
needs, but some industries are moving slower than others towards
href="http://www.dealingwithtechnology.com/public/showPage.html?page=871695"
target="_blank">disruptive technology.
href="http://www.xignite.com">
src="http://cdn.xignite.com/blog/01_25_10/xignite_screenshot_v1a.jpg"
alt="Xignite On-Demand Financial Market Data" width="225"
height="171" align="right" /> The Financial Data
Industry, with its transpiring low latency arms race and
troubling regulatory concerns, has all but shunned the Cloud
Computing paradigm, citing a host of philosophical concerns, and
boasting the perceived benefits of over-spending on data
acquisition technologies.
It's no
target="_blank">Financial Data Provider that has
integrated Cloud Computing technologies into its delivery model,
href="http://www.xignite.com/News/PressRelease.aspx?articleid=188"
target="_blank">growing at break-neck speeds.
It's on-demand delivery method provides professional
financial market data to customers in more than 5o countries
around the globe, saving serious time and money in the process.
While some data vendors are holding tight to their legacy
delivery methods, it's good to know that there is at
rel="no-follow" href="http://www.xignite.com"
target="_blank">Financial Data Provider that can see
into the clouds, and is embracing the future with open
arms.
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