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IBM plans to release a Web-based version of its Lotus business software, called “LotusLive,” its latest contribution to the fast-growing cloud computing market. IBM also announced a portfolio of Web-based social networking and collaboration software services through partnerships with LinkedIn, SAP, Salesforce.com and Research In Motion.
Lower total cost of ownership and little or no IT infrastructure to maintain are good starting arguments for moving to the cloud. While such concepts are easy to understand in the abstract, considering cloud computing on an industry-specific basis drives home some surprising limitations on this hot new model.
There are plenty of figures to show the efficiencies and cost savings that cloud computing can deliver, but here’s one you’re unlikely to hear during a sales pitch: The benefits of cloud computing are not linear with a project’s progress. That means if you only complete about 80 percent of the project, you can’t expect 80 percent of the expected benefits.
Google is launching a reseller recruitment drive that could herald a shift in the way the company markets its products. It is hoping to recruit “a very large number” of resellers for its Google Apps Premier Edition platform, according to Stephen Cho, director of Google Apps Channels — a number large enough to accommodate and help grow the 1-million-plus user base Google Apps has developed.
Merrill Lynch once forecast that the cloud computing market would reach an eye-popping $160 billion by 2011, a prediction that mostly drew skepticism. While sizing up the expectations for a nascent tech market is equal parts art and science, there are growing indications that $160 billion may indeed prove to be accurate.
Data centers and headquarters have made up approximately 90 percent of the value in many recent asset sales on Wall Street. For example, Lehman Brothers sold its assets to Barclays for $1.75 billion, 86 percent of which was for the data centers and headquarters alone.
Todd Pierce recently put his job on the line. To meet the computing needs of 16,300 employees and contractors at Genentech, Pierce took a chance and decided not to rely entirely on business software from Microsoft, IBM or another long-established supplier that would have let Genentech own the technology. Instead, Pierce decided to rent these indispensable products from Google.
Many enterprises and service providers are now grappling with how cloud models and economics will impact them. The specter of a challenging business climate may well hasten the need to seek IT resources that are supported through greater cloud computing approaches — to save money, as well as to better reach global audiences and gain Web-scale efficiencies.
There’s little room for error if your company decides to make the transition from a provider of on-premise solutions to a service provider via cloud computing. If you don’t take the time to develop reliable services that match the reliability of your on-premise offerings, your credibility will suffer.
Web 2.0 technologies offer more opportunities than just sharing information with friends and family on Facebook or uploading user-generated videos on YouTube. The tools that help enable conversations between people on the Internet can also help corporations get closer to their customers.
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