Cloud Computing and Software as a Service Applied?
Remember the days of Applied Engineering. Each of us was inspired by concepts of Applied Mechanics, Applied Thermodynamics, Applied consulting etc. It gave us an opportunity to explore the concept in a real time scenario. It is always with excitement, one enters the thermo dynamics labs to explore concepts of applied engineering. Time has come for us to break away and evaluate what the term applied cloud computing and applied Software as a Service means?
Both Cloud computing and Software as a service may have to be applied in our day to day life to realize the value of these technologies. Let us evaluate applied Cloud computing and Software as a Service offerings. These technologies once applied become ubiquitous in the way we do our normal day to day activities.
First thing first, we are used to receive the ubiquitous Smart messaging service based messages every time we have withdrawn money from the ATM machine. Has anyone imagined how the SMS is delivered? It is by means of applied cloud computing. The bank has subscribed to the cloud provider for managing the varying loads of SMS messaging requirements and these partners ensure that the Service level agreements are met. The next time you enter your data in a website, it may be validate against a cloud, with data posted and regulated in a Universal Customer Master.
If one visits the clinical laboratories for a medical check-up, every time a unique registration is done, it is highly likely the administrative staff taking you details, keys it into the IT infrastructure at a hosted SAAS application (Patient management and clinical data management). These examples show case that technology that we are talking as cutting edge has already entered our life, as a partner in hand rather than some distant unknown element. It is time we embrace these new technologies.
We need to clear identify untapped opportunity within the SAAS and/or Cloud computing and achieve value by being the path finder or early adopters of these technologies. I would be interested to discuss your views on this topic and also examples of applying these concepts innovatively.
Comments
The cloud computing hype is here to stay. It is also here to pinch the pockets in some cases. Yes, it's a cutting edge technology that has changed the dynamics of storing data. But, let us take the example of the patient who comes in to register in a nursing home which does host its own application via the cloud service. With a small initial customer base and excellent service quality, the probability of the number of unique people might rise exponentially which will result in an equal rise in cost to host and access the data with a provider. Two aspects - Though you pay a cost, your data is intact (what are the disadvantages of the cloud - maybe in another post) and two you do not need to take the server down to upgrade your H/W and S/W.
This brings us to an interesting point of elastic cloud computing from the realm of applied cloud computing. The scalability of a cloud is very much needed to be thought about. Many vendors promise the scalability is seamless. 3Tera, elastra all give you this service but at a premiuim as of today.
Maybe the next thing we need to ask ourselves is
how elastic are you to be applied?
Posted by: Venkataraman.R | August 25, 2009 1:36 PM
Venkat,
Much appreciated your comments. Please note many organizations are evaluating the Opex based investment rather than Capex based IT investment, to tide through the downturn in Economy and to remain competitive. I would like to provide reference to a blog from a fellow Infoscion, where he has done a comparison of Cloud computing ROI. Excellent post and a definite reference blog for many cloud aspirants.
http://www.infosysblogs.com/cloudcomputing/2009/06/the_cloud_roi_framework.html#more
Elastic cloud is an awesome proposition. It typically means the cloud provider has a huge investment on server’s deployment architecture i.e. to manage the varying load (Capex investment). This means the cloud provider will have to charge a premium to the cloud subscriber.
Alternately the cloud provider could do multi-tenant based cloud, to reduce the cost of share infrastructure.
However this adds complexity for a health care subscriber. Am I willing to share my customer data with my competitor who is a co-tenant on the same cloud? Definitely not.
Watch this space for more details around disadvantages of cloud.
Posted by: Jairaj Asok Kumar | August 26, 2009 6:27 AM
Thanks, Jairaj for the response.
Though a good read definitely - http://www.infosysblogs.com/cloudcomputing/2009/06/the_cloud_roi_framework.html#more – as Peter says the assumptions are not clear. The savings, estimates etc. need to have a basis. The move from Capex to Opex is more on assumptions and might not deliver the exact savings figure that might be available. If we look at time value of money which assumes significance when we “Account” for a cloud investment, the proposition to BUY might seem better than RENT. Though am not sure of the fee specifics from providers like Amazon and a host of others who offer these services, am sure the cost would work out higher given the maintenance charges and other fees that they charge.
On the elastic cloud, one of the reasons why I mentioned the same was due to the fact of exponential growth of a company, for example a healthcare institution as mentioned in my comments. It is easy to note that I do not incur infrastructure costs, upgrade costs etc. But, with growth comes the need to store more data and the need to customize which will guzzle money.
When you look at the prospect of complexity (share customer data, co-tenancy of competitors) from a healthcare subscriber, it is one of the fundamental parameters that will be evaluated before moving to the cloud. More importantly, the data is and will be protected and bound by legal agreements so that it cannot be “stolen”. But, that said, the cloud hype is here to stay and will evolve gradually. It must have its share of advantages and disadvantages as a new model.
Posted by: Venkataraman.R | August 26, 2009 8:05 AM
Venkat,
Agreed, Cloud architecture is evolving. If you happen to look at direction taken by the Open group, they have realized the need to address issues around cloud computing by forming a working committee.
The working committee aims to address issues, brought together by the paradigm shift in enterprise architecture consulting, in the cloud.
http://www.opengroup.org/cloudcomputing/
Posted by: Jairaj Asok Kumar | August 27, 2009 8:29 AM