Cloud Computing and the Enterprise
Introduction
Within two to three years the emerging Cloud computing phenomenon will affect enterprise IT software in a myriad of unthinkable ways. Cloud computing is the notion of outsourcing hardware and software to Internet service providers. In terms of innovation, cloud computing is showing the classic signs of a disruptive technology—it is not good enough for the masses yet, but it has the clear potential to shake things up and up heave the industry.
Enablers
Virtualization
Cloud computing will emerge as a protagonist in the enterprise IT industry because it incorporates a framework for dealing with a classic and asphyxiating problem in corporations: legacy software. Cloud computing enables strategic change by using technologies such as virtualisation to allow internal IT to function in a manner which is more akin to an external service, whilst also changing the business’ ability to consume cloud services. Virtualization can decouple legacy applications from their mundane platforms and infrastructures so that they can be independently integrated into a modern architecture. Virtualization enables the emergence and adoption of Cloud computing because this method for dealing with legacy applications is attractive. Corporations can save on hardware and infrastructure expenditure by virtualizing and their legacy applications in the cloud.
Software as a Service
Cloud computing incorporates SaaS. Cloud computing is the broad concept of using the internet to allow people to access technology-enabled services. According to Gartner, those services must be “massively scalable in terms of platform and infrastructure” to qualify as true “cloud computing”. The emergence of SaaS applications, scalable or not, is thus an essential driver for the capitalization of Cloud computing by vendors and consumers of enterprise IT.
Inhibitors
Legislation
At the moment, cloud computing works best for start-ups. Large organizations still aren’t comfortable with the concept. Putting your corporate information the cloud feels like a free fall to most organizations. It is hard to determine where the accountability lies when things go wrong; there is thus a requirement for rigor and legislation concerning the security and reliability of the cloud. Absence of such legislation will inhibit organizations from implementing cloud computing.
The capacity of the Internet
One of the reasons why cloud computing is not yet ready for mass roll out is that connections speeds aren't yet up to handling this much data. According to InfoWorld consumers and corporations could overload the current capacity and lead to fall-outs in two years unless backbone providers invest billions of dollars in a new infrastructure. Reliability is key for the corporate adoption of cloud computing, this potential lack of reliability inhibits corporate adoption of cloud computing.
Integration
The real challenge for legacy systems within the cloud is to find a way to deal with this interconnected landscape of “black-box” virtual machines or hypervisors that contain legacy systems. Surely, the cloud improves flexibility and scalability of legacy applications. But this doesn’t cure the necessity of having to open Pandora’s box for connecting legacy software to cloud interfaces.
Moreover, integration of one application via API’s is one thing, but integrating the whole portfolio of the enterprise’s applications in the cloud is another. Especially when you might not own or have access to source code. This disability is thus inhibiting corporate adoption of cloud computing.
Customization
SaaS vendors determine the nature of business processes in cloud applications. Amazon, Oracle, SAP and Google are working on standardized applications for the cloud, but it remains yet unknown how customization can be realized for such applications. This might be a destructive aspect for adoption as organizations might have deviating business processes from what is assumed by the standard applications that are offered by SaaS vendors.