Cloud Computing
<P>Welcome to the age of cloud computing, but what is it, exactly?</P>
Rick Rashid, head of Microsoft Research, recently commented in the Financial Times that about 20 percent of all the server computers being sold in the world “are now being bought by a small handful of internet companies,” including Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Amazon.
Reminiscent of the mainframe era of the past, there is an increasing – and very active – movement towards having applications and infrastructure that resides remotely, accessed across a network. This movement is being driven by many of the current technology leaders, particularly those mentioned above.
Welcome to the age of cloud computing. The “cloud,” whether it’s talking about ‘cloud services’ or ‘cloud computing’, is the buzzword du jour, usurping “Web 2.0” as one of the most overused terms in the technology industry, but is an area where most of the larger technology companies are committing to invest billions of dollars over the next few years.
Despite its widespread use, the concept of the cloud conveys several meanings depending on the vendors and technologies involved. Is it web hosting of your application code? Is it a software platform as an on-demand service? Do Software as a Service and Software + Services applications count as cloud computing? The answer to all these questions are a qualified “yes” – the answer revolves around the outsourcing of computing of any kind – storage, CPU, applications – using a shared cost, commodity model.
Besides representing yet another bandwagon for technologists to talk and tweet about, cloud computing is worthy of consideration for organisations of all sizes. The opportunity to use shared, pre-installed and implemented infrastructure that is available anywhere, at any time and is charged for on a pay-as-you-use basis provides numerous benefits to organisations – large and small.
Microsoft and the Cloud
Microsoft is one of the many companies investing in the cloud, on many levels.
Windows Azure is Microsoft’s platform for building and deploying cloud-based applications, delivering organisations on-demand computing and storage capabilities, all of which are hosted in Microsoft’s data centres.
Don’t underestimate the importance of the cloud to Microsoft. Despite Google becoming known for its hosted applications, and the widespread discussion around the supposed impact they may have on Microsoft’s business, particularly Office, Microsoft has placed significant investment in cloud services and is embracing it right across the organisation.
Reportedly, all product groups within Microsoft have been instructed to ensure cloud computing – utilising Windows Azure – features in their product roadmaps. Many observers have compared this edict to the one made when Microsoft’s product groups were instructed to incorporate the internet into their products, at the time the internet was just emerging – an indication of how significant the cloud, and Azure in particular, is in Microsoft’s future plans.
Intergen has been closely aligned with Microsoft and its Azure cloud computing platform since it was originally announced. Confirmed by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer as being released late 2009, Intergen’s Chris Auld, Director Strategy and Innovation, has been closely involved in understanding how Azure works, and training Microsoft partners across the Asia region – an indication of how Intergen’s experience in this area is being received.
In addition to Windows Azure, the notion of hosted applications has already been embraced by Microsoft. Now available in New Zealand, Microsoft’s Online Services suite of applications includes hosted versions of Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications Server and Live Meeting.
These applications enable organisations to deploy market-leading solutions without the need to purchase additional hardware or software – users connect to the applications over the web, and can also utilise the power of Microsoft’s client software – such as Microsoft Office – to take advantage of the services offline as well as online. It is anticipated these applications will also make their way into Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure, taking advantage of Azure, if they are not already. Office 14, the next release of Microsoft Office, is purportedly going to be available in a hosted version, likely in a cut-down form, utilising an underlying Azure platform.
While cloud applications won’t replace on-premise applications for many organisations, they do represent a further shift in how technology is deployed, accessed and adopted.