5 Cloud Computing Questions and their Answers

Cloud computing has been one of the biggest IT phenomena of the modern times. However, there are many questions about the cloud that are still not answered. The most popular of them all is; what’s next? This article will deal with some of the biggest mysteries of cloud computing and the next biggest thing in this regard.

Here are answers to a few of these questions:

1) Who pays for the cloud?

This is one of the biggest mysteries of cloud computing. Research shows that the IT dept pays the highest with the rest being charged from the corporate credit cards. This results in the fact that the overall cost of cloud is buried. No one can pinpoint the source from where the costs are bared in the company.

2) Is cloud truly a cost saving service?

The general opinion is that cloud saves a lot of finances of the company. However, the evidence suggests otherwise, especially, when we look at it in the long run. The reason behind this is that companies are really paying for a resource that they don’t even own.

3) What is the next big revolution in cloud services?

We are moving towards the age of super computers. We all remember “Titan”, a supercomputer with the accumulative processing power of 500,000 laptops. However, a supercomputer is really of no use unless there is an operating software to support it; this is where companies can benefit from cloud facilities. Rob Clyde is CEO of “Adaptive”, a computer software company. According to Clyde, The software of cloud computing is very much the same as the software that runs “Titan”.

The CEO of Adaptive Computers, Rob Clyde says, “The line between high performance computing and cloud is blurring”. Rob Clyde’s company recently developed a computer software that could increase the efficiency of supercomputer “Titan” to 95%, which was previously 70%.

Aaron Levie, CEO at ‘Box’- a cloud storage service provider, believes that with the current advancements in computer technology, software is the biggest limiting factor in the world of IT, not the processing capacity. He says, “We’re moving to a world where computing is almost sort of indistinguishable from being infinite. The tools to manage that computing are becoming the next limiter.” In such times, a service like the cloud that helps companies to manage their operating systems more efficiently and with minimal costs can be of a huge support.

4) Is storing data on the cloud safer?

This basically depends on the training and the skill set of on-site data center staff of cloud service provider. A number of CIOs believes that the data is infact safer in the cloud and the on-site staff of the cloud service provider is better trained than the company’s own data staff.

5) Is cloud really helping to save energy?

One of the biggest pros of cloud computing is that when a large number of companies stores data at a single location, it helps achieve economies of scale, as companies no longer have to run their own data centers. This also means that the energy is saved. But, environmentalists believe that these huge data centers are infact consuming more energy than individual small size data centers. However, indicators still favor cloud computing in this regard; especially if you look at the bigger picture e.g. less paper consumption, fewer stores, less travel etc.

Despite of a few “anomalies”, experts still believe that cloud computing will continue to grow in 2013, as more and more companies will start availing cloud services. Will the coming years solve some of these issues? Well, only time will answer this question.