Continuing the conversation about Cloud Computing, I ran into this article through a Google Newsfeed this week. It seems to me and to the author of this post http://www.wired.com/cloudline/2012/03/personal-cloud-2014/ that some companies are not taking Cloud seriously. Tagging onto my post from a couple of weeks ago, the author agrees with my conclusion that deploying enterprise applications through the Cloud is really the “secret sauce” (my words).
Cloud Computing’s core components have been with us for years. Virtualization, service provider licensing, remote access, .net development platform. However, it’s only been the past few years that we, as a Cloud Computing Industry, have been able to fully deploy the Cloud.
The next evolution of Cloud is “app-ifying” specific components of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BI (Business Intelligence). We have seen CRM become one of the first applications to app-ify components such as Accounts, Opportunities, Tasks and Activity Management but we must go further. We must have specific ERP components deployed in a Cloud and Mobile platform for approvals and other tasks that should not require the user to be chained to a desk or a laptop.
BI is really one of the most impressive applications of Cloud and Mobility that can bring the most value to a company. Imagine being able to keep your fingers on the pulse of your business through a mobile app that shows your key performance indicators on your tablet. This is expressed by the author as:
“The new iPad may be the most impressive piece of computing hardware I’ve ever seen. Yet its true power is held back by large enterprise software corporations that cannot keep pace with the new devices designed with cloud computing in mind…. It’s as if they’ve completely ignored one of the most successful computing platforms ever built, outselling the total number of PCs its closest competitor sold last quarter.”
Further, Gartner has weighed in on the overall Cloud movement with these statements:
Gartner says a number of factors are converging to make for a perfect personal cloud storm by 2014:
Megatrend No. 1: Consumerization — You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
Gartner has discussed the consumerization of IT for the better part of a decade, and has seen the impact of it across various aspects of the corporate IT world. However, much of this has simply been a precursor to the major wave that is starting to take hold across all aspects of information technology as several key factors come together:
- Users are more technologically-savvy and have very different expectations of technology.
- The internet and social media have empowered and emboldened users.
- The rise of powerful, affordable mobile devices changes the equation for users.
- Users have become innovators.
- Through the democratization of technology, users of all types and status within organizations can now have similar technology available to them.
Megatrend No. 2: Virtualization — Changing How the Game Is Played
Virtualization has improved flexibility and increased the options for how IT organizations can implement client environments….Megatrend No. 3: “App-ification” — From Applications to Apps
When the way that applications are designed, delivered and consumed by users changes, it has a dramatic impact on all other aspects of the market….Megatrend No. 4: The Ever-Available Self-Service Cloud
The advent of the cloud for servicing individual users opens a whole new level of opportunity. Every user can now have a scalable and nearly infinite set of resources available for whatever they need to do….Megatrend No. 5: The Mobility Shift — Wherever and Whenever You Want
Today, mobile devices combined with the cloud can fulfill most computing tasks, and any tradeoffs are outweighed in the minds of the user by the convenience and flexibility provided by the mobile devices….
“The combination of these megatrends, coupled with advances in new enabling technologies, is ushering in the era of the personal cloud,” Gartner’s Kleynhans said. “In this new world, the specifics of devices will become less important for the organization to worry about. Users will use a collection of devices, with the PC remaining one of many options, but no one device will be the primary hub. Rather, the personal cloud will take on that role. Access to the cloud and the content stored or shared in the cloud will be managed and secured, rather than solely focusing on the device itself.”
We have to be “all in” as Microsoft has put it. Cloud Computing will roll over those who do not get on board!