NEW YORK – Cloud computing is the next evolution of technology and capabilities, but it’s still in its early adopter phase, according to an IBM spokesperson.
IBM and its customers have been experimenting with cloud computing, and while the technology is only now starting to get going, it’s generally expected that the uptake in it will be significant this year and for the next few years. According to Gordon Kerr, distinguished engineer at IBM Canada, the current state of cloud computing is a beginning point that gives some indication of how it’s going to evolve over the next three to four years.
IBM has gone through some of the prototyping of cloud computing applications, and now the company is looking ahead to providing massively-scaled capabilities, Kerr said. Fundamentally, the technology boils down to dynamic, real-time provisioning of resources and capabilities with a simplified end-user interface.
Prototyping is largely behind IBM now, though, and the company is working on its initial suite of applications, Kerr said. Also up for consideration is who the customers will be, but initially, Kerr said he expects customers to come from telecommunications (which already has done much work on cloud computing), universities, manufacturing and financial services.
“I think we’re probably at our early stages of getting a more rigorous definition or understanding of how the consumer would like to acquire these resources and how long they’d like them for and what new purposes,” Kerr said.
However, there’s a difference between what consumers and businesses are looking for in cloud computing applications, but in the end, both are looking for ways to connect and stay connected in the cloud with a variety of applications, many of which are collaborative in nature.
“At the beginning level, it’s to have a different option in terms of cost and pricing of highly-purposed datacenter environments,” Kerr said.
Telecommunications companies are already supporting cloud computing initiatives, but in the corporate world, companies like Google and Amazon are doing much of the major experimentation, he said. Kerr noted he’s aware of several companies that have cloud-like or full cloud computing environments that they’re beginning to take to the next level. Some of them are using cloud computing to do data mining and analysis of social networking sites.
“Many companies are literally having many clouds or internal clouds where they’re developing that experimentation and trying to satisfy their end-clients a little bit more,” Kerr said, adding that there will be more experimentation in cloud computing throughout 2009.
This column was written by Chris Talbot of ConnectIT, an IntegratedMarCompany
a>>
