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Challenges to Cost-Effective Cloud Computing
You really don't need an MIS PhD to explain cloud computing, but here's a basic introduction. Traditionally you have a centralized networked infrastructure with specialized servers, storage, apps/software and other devices. For larger companies or organizations, you may also have distributed/regional data centers/hubs. You need to worry about capacity/scalability and availability of your servers, storage, etc. DBA's like me worry about these issues all the time: what if the database servers have hardware or storage outages? What if the server rooms flood or experience sustained power outages? Outages can translate to lost sales or opportunities. Maybe we can build redundant facilities, in geographically separate locations to control for risks of natural disasters. Scalability is also an issue; we all know what websites can crash over unexpectedly large user loads.
New or expanded facilities can require a lot of investment and/or specialized personnel. An alternative to the own option is the rent option: in this context cloud computing, in essence, allowing you to extend and/or replace your organizational infrastructure. There are vendors, e.g., Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure), IBM, Oracle, etc., providing different levels of services, i.e., IaaS, SaaS, PaaS. Depending on your configured options, you can expand your cloud infrastructure on an as-needed basis, and the cloud vendor personnel will handle relevant hardware or systems support issues. Key concerns of IT managers include uptime and security.
I won't comment on the clip below, but one of the key concerns described is that IT managers find their cloud computing costs are more than expected, and they might want to reconfigure to less costly options if they don't need, say, premium performance.
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Musical Interlude: #1 Hits of 1994
Ini Kamoze, "Here Comes The Hotstepper". And that's a wrap on 1994,
