Cloud Computing

I just watched a webinar called 'Powering Your Business with Cloud Computing' hosted by the Grid Computing Now! KTN.

It was a really interesting seminar about an organisation called Rozmic and how it uses Cloud Computing for a new service it's released. There were also some interesting questions at the end, the main issues people had with using Cloud Computing seem to be interoperability between different providers, security concerns (which are pretty much overcome by keeping the really sensitive data inhouse) and pricing (the fact that you can't easily predict how much you will use and therefore how much it will cost which is difficult for less flexible large organisations, and that it's all new so pricing can still vary quite a lot).

However, the potential financial advantages seem to be huge, especially for small business and start ups. Ross Cooney at Rozmic made the good point that with Cloud Computing you can take your time over purchasing hardware as you're not in the usual desperate situation of having to get new servers tomorrow, instead you can use cloud computing in the interim while negotiating a good deal for equipment. And of course you can have less equipment inhouse and take advantage of cloud computing for some of your needs.

Ross also suggested an 8 hour rule whereby any server that will be in use for more than 8 hours a day is cheaper to have inhouse, anything in use less than 8 hours a day is cheaper using cloud computing. He stressed this wasn't rigorously tested but I think it's a good rule of thumb for a small business trying to work out what to do.

Anyway you can watch the seminar online at the Grid Computing Now! website:

http://www.gridcomputingnow.org/

As far as I can tell you have to register in order to watch the seminars but it's free and then you can also see what other webinars they have coming up.