Cloud Computing – “Whats the Buzz? - Ask, Find, Discuss about ...

[ CLOUD COMPUTING: A DEVELOPING WORLD PERSPECTIVE ]Ninad DhavaseCloud Computing is no more a technical term,rather it has become the need of the time. Youmight be an entrepreneur planning to start anew business, or a Mid‐Cap company planningto start a data centre for your esteemed client,or a government official charged with the taskof developing a system to deliver efficientservices to the citizens, you can’t move aheadin your strategy without giving “CloudComputing” a thought.Cloud computing is like a Giant Office Buildingwhere everyone shares the infrastructure and isable to customize as per their needs. It is a “Pay‐as‐you‐go” system where you pay only for thetime/space you use, just like the time sharingsystem used during the early days of thecomputer evolution. Cloud Computing (C2)releases businesses from the cumbersome taskof setting‐up, developing and maintaining the ITinfrastructure at their end.Cloud Computing has tremendous advantagefor the Businesses, Research Departments andgovernments of the developing economies.These economies, which have limited resourcesto invest in technology, need not worry aboutkeeping abreast with the technology. CloudComputing is “super agile” and will take care ofupgrading to the new technologies. CloudComputing provides three kind of services‐Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Platform as aService (Paas) and Software as a Service(SaaS).These services are spread across three mostexpensive elements in any system namelyStorage, Servers and Software Applications. C2thus provides a level playing field for everyoneand reduces the set‐up time for enterprises andindividuals to start their businesses.The developing countries are living in a veryprime age. Those who have some systems inplace and want to upgrade, as well as thosewho do not have any, have a wonderfulopportunity to reap the benefits provisionedby C2. SME’s who are willing to venture intonew arenas, can utilize the low cost solutionsprovided by C2. At the same time, SME’s canact as vendors of the big C2 giants andestablish a nexus between the producer andthe consumer. There is a definite need forsuch agencies. This will help develop acomplete ecosystem of Producers, Cloudagents and the Consumers. This ecosystemwill help generate a lot of revenue for boththe people and the governments, which willtrigger a technology wave in the country.On the other hand, C2 behemoths likeMicrosoft, Google and Amazon can enable theprocess of setting up infrastructure in thesedeveloping countries which will ultimatelybenefit their businesses and can also featurein their Corporate Social Responsibilitycolumns. It is impossible to think businesswithout an IT arm and hence largeorganizations can leverage the cloudtechnology to bring a transformation in theway they run their business.In a classic example from India, the ApparelExport Promotion Council has developed acloud platform that provides computingservices and enterprise software to more than11,000 of its members— most of whom lackthe capital and resources to build their ownIT infrastructure.C2 will surely require some boost from theproviders and the early adapters in order for itto penetrate up to the grass roots. Thebenefits are multi‐faceted, but as with any21