This link has been bookmarked by 12 people . It was first bookmarked on 25 Oct 2008, by raman srinivasan.
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23 Apr 09
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20 Nov 08
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09 Nov 08
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The rise of the cloud is more than just another platform shift that gets geeks excited. It will undoubtedly transform the information technology (IT) industry, but it will also profoundly change the way people work and companies operate. It will allow digital technology to penetrate every nook and cranny of the economy and of society, creating some tricky political problems along the way.
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In fact, the cloud craze may have peaked already, if the number of Google searches is any guide (see chart 1). Cloud computing is bound to go through a “trough of disillusionment”, as Gartner, a research firm, calls the phase in the hype cycle when technologies fail to meet expectations and quickly cease to be fashionable. Much still needs to be invented for the computing sky to become truly cloudy.
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In the years to come companies are likely to venture much farther. For one, operators of computing clouds such as Amazon and Google have shown that this is a far more efficient way of running IT systems. Secondly, many firms will find they have no choice. The way in which their IT infrastructure has grown is proving unsustainable. Most corporate data centres today are complex warrens of underused hardware that require more and more people, space and power to keep them going. The current economic malaise will increase the pressure on companies to become more efficient. More has to be done with less, which is cloud computing’s main promise.
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30 Oct 08
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The first “computers” were indeed people. The word originally meant an individual who solved equations, often using a mechanical calculator. Hundreds of them were employed by big companies that needed to do a lot of number-crunching, such as aeroplane manufacturers. It was only around 1945 that the word came to describe machinery.
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The mainframe, the original computing platform, was dethroned by minicomputers, which in turn gave way to personal computers, which are now being pushed aside by hand-held devices and smartphones.
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It is becoming more centralised again as some of the activity moves into data centres. But more importantly, it is turning into what has come to be called a “cloud”
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Computing power will become more and more disembodied and will be consumed where and when it is needed.
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In fact, the cloud craze may have peaked already, if the number of Google searches is any guide
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Cloud computing is bound to go through a “trough of disillusionment”, as Gartner, a research firm, calls the phase in the hype cycle when technologies fail to meet expectations and quickly cease to be fashionable.
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even if the term is already passé, the cloud itself is here to stay and to grow.
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data centres are becoming factories for computing services on an industrial scale; software is increasingly being delivered as an online service; and wireless networks connect more and more devices to such offerings.
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All this allows computing to be disaggregated into components—or “services”, in IT parlance.
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refer to it as the “internet of services”
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The internet is used mainly by people with personal computers and a physical network connection. Cloud applications, on the other hand, will be used by billions of devices of all kinds, many of them untethered, but will be connected to the “internet of things”.
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69% of Americans connected to the web use some kind of “cloud service”, including web-based e-mail or online data storage
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The best example is Google
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which now offers a plethora of web-based applications such as word-processing or online spreadsheets.
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Firms that provide enterprise software as a service (SaaS) over the internet, such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite, have been growing steadily.
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operators of computing clouds such as Amazon and Google have shown that this is a far more efficient way of running IT systems.
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Most corporate data centres today are complex warrens of underused hardware that require more and more people, space and power to keep them going. The current economic malaise will increase the pressure on companies to become more efficient.
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29 Oct 08
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26 Oct 08
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25 Oct 08
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All this allows computing to be disaggregated into components—or “services”, in IT parlance. This is why European technologists such as Lutz Heuser, head of research at SAP, a German software giant, like to refer to it as the “internet of services”. The cloud metaphor seems more apt. The internet is used mainly by people with personal computers and a physical network connection. Cloud applications, on the other hand, will be used by billions of devices of all kinds, many of them untethered, but will be connected to the “internet of things”.
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