Cloud Computing - The New Rock and Roll

So a new year has begun and its out with the old and in with the new. Well for the most part. It was during my post-Christmas clean-up yesterday that I found myself furtively slipping X-Factor’s latest offering into the lonely depths of my bottom CD drawer. Another act, another fad. Yet, they are called today’s Rockstars. Surely, such a term should be saved for the Bowies and REMs of this world, demonstrating resilience and evolution through the years, sticking it out when the going was tough and long before the recognition, hype and groupies set it? Well at least there is a rightful new chart-topper in the world of Business Intelligence and whats more, this one is here to stay. 

A recent study by Cisco IBSG(1), estimated that 12% of enterprise workload will run in the cloud by 2013 and that the cost-savings from using cloud services will benefit the UK economy alone to the tune of 30 Billion Euros (2) over the next five years. Yet, there was no Simon Cowell back in the 60’s when the earliest hint of utility computing fell on the deaf ears of a technologically primitive world. Only in the 90’s amidst the clang of Blur and Oasis was it that a major record label of the IT world, Amazon, signed up to the idea and put cloud computing to the wider audience with the launch of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002. The rest is history and roll on five years to find even Google and IBM amongst the fans in the front row with their offerings of Google Apps(3) and IBM Smart Business Development and Test(4). 

The fact is, cloud computing has been around for a while and only now with years of sound iterative development and millions of trusted users, has the Hype finally set in. With the immediate forecast being a year-on-year growth rate of 43% (5), cloud computing’s fan-base is set to increase relentlessly. And boy is it going to be some show.

(1)
http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/wp/sp/Service_Providers_as_Cloud_Providers_IBSG.pdf

(2)
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/35321/Cloud-to-benefit-UK-economy-by-30-billion-Euros

(3)
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html

(4)
http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/igs/cloud-development/

(5)
http://www.newinnovationsguide.com/Cloud.html


Fabien Flight
Senior Engineer - Cloudreach