Critical Info for Businesses about Utility Computing
Utility Computing (Hosting, Grid, Cloud, Infrastructure as a Service) is transforming the way businesses procure and utilize IT. By 2011 40% of all businesses will be purchasing IT infrastructure as a service according to Gartner.
Here we are providing key information on the utility computing market, where it is going and how to best move to this new paradigm.
Here we are providing key information on the utility computing market, where it is going and how to best move to this new paradigm.
(The IT Revolution, Cloud Computing is August 23, 2011)
All About Utility Computing
NEVER Buy Servers and Software Again!
Why is Utility Computing taking the IT world by storm and what should we expect?
Experts at Gartner predict that by 2011 a full 40% of businesses will purchase their IT Infrastructure as a service - versus purchasing traditional hardware and software and install it "in" their business.
Why?
There are various reasons but ultimately it comes down to economics first and foremost, but then reliability, performance, disaster recovery and "hassle free" or "worry free" IT. This is especially true of the Small and Medium businesses of the world who now rely on IT more than ever but are tired of the toll managing, maintaining and supporting it takes on their business.
As Nicolas Carr states in his book "The Big Switch" businesses are as much in the IT business as they are in whatever it is they actually do. Today and small misstep in IT - an outage, a wrong purchasing decision, slow performance, running out of storage or viruses and spyware, can cause severe damage to a small business - even bankruptcy.
Actually a fuly 40% of small and medium businesses that suffer some form of serious IT disaster such as loss of data, extended downtime or a breach of security are out of business within three (3) years.
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Experts at Gartner predict that by 2011 a full 40% of businesses will purchase their IT Infrastructure as a service - versus purchasing traditional hardware and software and install it "in" their business.
Why?
There are various reasons but ultimately it comes down to economics first and foremost, but then reliability, performance, disaster recovery and "hassle free" or "worry free" IT. This is especially true of the Small and Medium businesses of the world who now rely on IT more than ever but are tired of the toll managing, maintaining and supporting it takes on their business.
As Nicolas Carr states in his book "The Big Switch" businesses are as much in the IT business as they are in whatever it is they actually do. Today and small misstep in IT - an outage, a wrong purchasing decision, slow performance, running out of storage or viruses and spyware, can cause severe damage to a small business - even bankruptcy.
Actually a fuly 40% of small and medium businesses that suffer some form of serious IT disaster such as loss of data, extended downtime or a breach of security are out of business within three (3) years.
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How and why do you get started?
Let's start with why:
1. Driving need or desire to make IT go away
2. IT is an important component of your businesses ability to operate
3. You require performance and reliability without complexity
4. You are tired of buying new equipment, keeping track of licensing, integration applications and dealing with support
How:
1. Identify local or regional companies who provide these services
2. Determine your budget for computing - remember, don't just factor capital expenditures but ongoing support, maintenance and the intangibles of support (avg support costs per user per year is $2,500)
3. Engage a company to perform an assessment to determine what gaps you have and need to correct to "solidify" your network
2. IT is an important component of your businesses ability to operate
3. You require performance and reliability without complexity
4. You are tired of buying new equipment, keeping track of licensing, integration applications and dealing with support
How:
1. Identify local or regional companies who provide these services
2. Determine your budget for computing - remember, don't just factor capital expenditures but ongoing support, maintenance and the intangibles of support (avg support costs per user per year is $2,500)
3. Engage a company to perform an assessment to determine what gaps you have and need to correct to "solidify" your network
The promise of Utility Computing
What's the difference?
The promise of Utility Computing - also thought of as Cloud Computing, IT as a Service or Technology as a Service - is to do very much what power companies did in the industrial revolution. This is to take advantage of the economies of scale, provide faster, more powerful, more reliable, highly scalable and less expensive IT infrastructure than a business could themselves. Just like in the industrial revolution when businesses went from building their own power plants to "plugging" in to a utility we are see the same change in IT services.
There are some fundamental differences in these utilities and those promised for IT. First we sure hope they don't become stagnant monopolies who no longer innovate and respond slowly and without much care for custmoer service. More importantly though electric utilities only produce and distribute power - they don't provide the toaster, microwave, TV and XBox. IT Service Providers, these IT Utility Companies, can deliver the application all the way down to the actual PC and desktop with all of the customers applications. This means this utility can be served from anywhere, anytime without regard for anything other than a connection to the internet and a device of some kind.
There are some fundamental differences in these utilities and those promised for IT. First we sure hope they don't become stagnant monopolies who no longer innovate and respond slowly and without much care for custmoer service. More importantly though electric utilities only produce and distribute power - they don't provide the toaster, microwave, TV and XBox. IT Service Providers, these IT Utility Companies, can deliver the application all the way down to the actual PC and desktop with all of the customers applications. This means this utility can be served from anywhere, anytime without regard for anything other than a connection to the internet and a device of some kind.
Great Links to Utility Computing Information
These are great links to Utility Computing Information, articles, etc.
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- Nicolas Carr's Info on His Book
- Great overview of the book. This is a great primer.
------------------------------------------ - CIO Review and Article on Nick Carr's Book
- Nick Carr continues his assault on IT organizations in his latest book, "The Big Switch." Unlike his previous book, "Does IT Matter," however, in this book traditional IT is a wounded bystander, casually winged by Carr while he takes aim at his major target, which is the move to a centralized, webified information processing infrastructure.
------------------------------------------ - The Utility Computing Website
- Utility Computing, a subsidiary of the Networking 2.0 Group, is a diversified, international media company serving and educating the Utility Computing industry. Founded in 2001, the London and New York based company is dedicated to providing industry professionals with the latest news, resources and services through editorial, discussion lists, feature articles, and much more.
------------------------------------------ - Amazon's Doing Cloud Computing
- Check out how Amazon is taking advantage of offering Cloud computing services.
-------------------------------------------- - Businessweek Article on Cloud Computing
- Find out what Businessweek was saying in 2007 about the future of Cloud Computing
- ZDNet Article on Infrastructure as a Service
- Great article from 2007 on ZDNet about IaaS
- CIO Magazine Blog Post Article on IaaS
- Great article outlining the model on CIO Magazine
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