Cloud computing gains currency

By Simon Njuguna Cloud computing has become the buzzword in corporate world in the recent past. IBM has been offering this service for a long period in the global market and has been joined by local players who have now begun offering the same service locally. The concept of cloud computing is slowly gaining acceptance among the corporate community.This concept of data storage reconfigures investment in technology — removing the headache of expensive upfront capital investment in high-end servers and related hardware; software licenses; as well as the maintenance and support related operational costs. High capital and operating spend requirements have been the greatest inhibition in the adoption of modern and latest Information Technology (IT) solutions for most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and even huge corporations. Storage dataIn cloud computing, IT is transformed to a utility that a company can choose to pay for selectively. Whichever way corporates look at it, cloud computing offers the most efficient, flexible and reliable approach to business computing.With cloud computing, companies can radically transform their storage data environment without investing in the time and expense of setting up, configuring, and deploying new systems. This makes it conveniently easier to innovate and increase revenues. This is not easy to achieve with the traditional IT models.Gartner, the leading global IT research company, describes cloud computing as scalable and elastic. This is an important attribute of the technology as it gives leverage to firms to scale up and down with ease. Cloud computing also gives multiple consumers the ability to share underlying infrastructure, software or platforms. This ensures such resources are optimally and efficiently utilised. As the year advances, local firms are most likely to adopt cloud computing even if cautiously and we are likely to see hybrid models. Just like any new technology, company executives are still grappling with the question of data security in the cloud, business continuity and the perceived loss of control over data, one of the most important corporate assets. Hybrid modelAs such, some companies will initially let go of what they consider less important and retain the rest in their traditional IT setup. Managing this hybrid environment will be a huge challenge and if not properly done, the targeted benefits will be a pipedream. There have been some concerns on the security of resources in the cloud. As data centres, infrastructure and software are fired into the cloud, business executives need to be convinced of their security. In this year then, we will see some effort towards establishment of governance to guide cloud computing. Business and IT management will be setting rules and regulations around this new initiative. For instance, open clouds that will not be well secured or have inadequate and unclear governance models will have little benefit to companies that have to comply with government and industry requirements.In our local context, as we adopt cloud computing in East Africa, we will see a trend towards the provision of fast and stable Internet services. Cloud computing utilises Internet technologies such as identifiers, protocols and formats. The arrival and penetration of fibre technology in the region is a good foundation on which to build our computing capabilities. Internet service providers in the region need to invest in ensuring provision of high availability quality and secure connections. The success of businesses with cloud computing will depend mainly on the stakeholders involved in the provision of cloud computing services. The business executives and IT management will actualise the concept through careful and timely decision-making and adoption.—The author is the IT Director, Deloitte East Africa.

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