Tuesday Oct 11, 2011
Evaluating the Cloud
The season of the cloud
Fall tends to be a favorite season amongst, well everyone. It’s not too cold, it’s not too hot, but it is a change from the warm summer months.
Whether the change in weather is welcome or the change is resisted, there are advantages to this new season. In technology, this new season is that of the cloud. Cloud computing refers to apps delivered as services over the Internet as well as the hardware and systems software in the data centers that provide those services.
With the cloud, there are many changes to how the end-user views software. Now software doesn't even have to be downloaded, it can simply contain a log-in and be used via the Internet. With this powerful change, there have been many concerns. Whether you are concerned or not, avoiding the cloud is practically impossible. Forrester's report "Sizing the Cloud" predicts that the global market for cloud computing — including the public cloud, the private cloud and the virtual private cloud — will leap from $40.7 billion this year to more than $241 billion in 2020.
To ease some of your worries about the cloud, we have listed some of its advantages.
Advantages of the Cloud (from the desk of one of our developers):
1. Once your content is saved you don’t have to worry about your hard drive dying and losing your data. You’re not relying on your local system to store your data because it is stored up in the cloud.
2. The cloud makes sharing and collaboration much easier. You don’t have to worry about emailing files and multiple changes being made without notice. If you store the file in the cloud that same file can be updated by multiple users at the same time.
3. If the administrator creates content, the end-users can view it immediately. If an edit needs to be made, the admin can make the changes immediately for the users to see.
4. Cloud computing is really great for when your organization is spread out across the globe because content can be accessed from anywhere.
Furthermore, in terms of training within an organization, this model works great because courses can be updated and seen by end-users immediately. The end-users as well as the administrators do not have to download training software because all content can be found within the training platform.
While cloud computing has the above advantages, it is interesting to reflect on how we came to this point.
Originally in 70s and 80s, computers were entire rooms. In your organization to access a computer, you had a terminal. The computer would be in another room, and everyone would connect to the same computer.
Today, look at the Chromebook which is promoted as having the “Same experience everywhere.” According to google.com/chromebook, when using the Chromebook, “apps, documents, and settings are stored safely in the cloud. So even if you lose your computer, you can just log in to another Chromebook and get right back to work.”
Essentially, we are going back to the same idea of one data center that the end-user doesn’t see. It is interesting to understand that while we are advancing, we are also going back to a similar idea that we started with. Hmmm.. Maybe the cloud isn’t as big of a change as we thought?
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