by Cory Emanuel
Imagine a world where some individuals or businesses are privileged to have their own water reservoir or electrical power plant, while others have none. Now imagine a world where there is one massive reservoir or electrical power plant and a supply network that everyone can tap into for free or for a fee based on usage. Now substitute the water reservoir or the power plant for a computing network, and what you have is a comparative illustration of the world before and after cloud computing, and the fascinating interconnected world it has enabled.
Cloud computing is no longer just a buzzword you may have heard people touting loosely; the paradigm shift has happened, it is the wave of the future. Essentially, it is a way for consumers or companies to tap into and utilize the vast IT resources (software and hardware) of another company (e.g. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Windows Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Salesforce.com) via the internet, instead of using their limited resources to create and maintain their own IT network system.
Before the internet and cloud computing existed, only the privileged few were financially capable of harnessing the power of large-scale computing services. Over the past 10 years a plethora of companies with massive amounts of computing resources have emerged, and they allow anyone to tap into their network systems for free or for a fee, which varies according to the package you subscribe to or the amount of IT resources you actually consume.
Why Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing through the internet helps level the IT resource and business-opportunity playing field for businesses of all sizes. Small to midsized companies can easily access these widely varied cloud services and use them to align and manage their limited human, financial and technology resources more efficiently. It also gives them greater flexibility and options to scale their operations easily and rapidly to respond to the unpredictable and ever-changing demands of today’s economic and business environment. This means they are better equipped to:
- Compete against the industry giants in their sector.
- Take advantage of newly discovered IT-supported business opportunities with little need for any heavy upfront capital investment in technology and human resources to make it happen.
- Downsize their operations during low-season periods in the most resource-optimized way. (This applies more to larger businesses).
How can you take advantage of this new paradigm shift called cloud computing?
Cloud computing has essentially transformed the internet and its vast network of computers into a massive computer power plant and IT resource pool that you can plug into when you or your company wish to utilize these vast resources to support your business IT strategy. This is becoming increasingly crucial for companies if they want to survive and thrive in today’s dynamic and very challenging business climate. While a few companies have made the complete shift and begun to take advantage of this new reality, others, surprisingly, remain stuck in the old paradigm of the less privileged, despite the fact that rapid advancements in digital technology and cloud computing have removed the shackles of resource limitation from their ankles.
Could it be their fear of change; or is it perhaps because those companies find it difficult to adopt new habits and ways of doing business? Could it be a lack of awareness or knowledge of the benefits that can be derived from the new technologies? Perhaps they simply require some know-how for initiating the transition. The reasons may vary with each business.
However, with a little consultation or guidance from a knowledgeable IT professional or savvy power computer user, anyone can take advantage of cloud computing services, or any other democratized business IT resources to help advance the vision and goals of their business and hopefully take it to new heights of success and profitability.
