Cloud Computing and SOA Convergence in Your Enterprise: A Step ...

30 Chapter 2 Reaching for the Clouds
Moreover, there is more cost savings when you consider that you are
done with beta and version .0 releases. Since clouds are as-a-service and remotely
hosted, the cloud provider can update, fix, or redeploy software anytime,
as needed, and typically without bothering the cloud user. Those who
have suffered through software upgrades will find this a huge advantage.
However, the lack of control over when fixes and updates are performed can
be costly to the cloud user. If not performed when needed, fixes—actually,
the lack thereof—can cripple the cloud user. Updates can force the cloud
user into costly, untimely, and possibly unwanted changes, especially as older
versions are retired.
Network means the clouds are in the Internet, and the Internet is connected
to many other things that add value, including social networking
sites, commerce APIs, mapping APIs, and other clouds. Thus, you can better
mix and match cloud services to meet the needs of the business problem you
are looking to solve. The ability for a cloud service to be combined with
other cloud services, making a custom service that is even more powerful
than the sum of any of its parts, is a real benefit of cloud computing.
Innovative means that cloud computing and the solutions it provides
now are new, modern, and innovative, and it will continue to have a lot of innovative
features that provide a lot of value for the money invested. This
makes cloud computing a much easier sell, since the hype, the passion, and
the majority of those in the industry are behind cloud computing because it
is known to provide value. That in itself has value. Those companies that leverage
cloud computing, particularly startups, will find that the use of this
approach adds to the value of the IT innovations they created and thus to the
company as a whole.
Expandability, somewhat related to cost, means that you can add as
much capacity as you need, when you need it, just by increasing spending.
Also, you can reduce the capacity just as easily. There is no need to place a
ton of hardware and software in the wings just waiting for an opportunity to
go into production. Nor will you get caught needing resources that take
weeks or months to acquire and install. You can get what you need, when you
need it, and with the click of a mouse.
Speed to implementation, also related to expandability, is a benefit because
the time to implementation of cloud computing can be days, perhaps
just hours in some cases. You are not purchasing hardware, installing operating
systems, or getting permission to take a portion of a data center. You sim-