Get Your Head In The Clouds!
Mahesh H. Dodani · The Journal of Object Technology · 2009
Jeremy Geelan: What are the main business drivers for Cloud Computing -for this overall technology trend?Dr Kristof Kloeckner: In the end, it's all about money -how much do you spend for just maintaining the status quo, and how much on supporting truly differentiating business initiatives.This drives an imperative for dynamic infrastructures, increasing resource utilization and reducing labor costs, and for more flexible economics in the consumption and delivery of IT based services."-Cloud Computing Journal Interviews IBM's Enterprise Initiatives CTO, Dr. Kristof Kloeckner As I promised in my previous column, this article marks the start of our journey into the cloud.I want to start our journey by focusing on the business imperative of cloud computing -what is driving enterprises to embrace it, what capabilities it promises to deliver, and what value can enterprises derive from it.In today's economy, many businesses are faced with the challenge of reducing the cost of running their enterprises while continuing to deliver new, innovative business services.The facts surrounding the costs of IT infrastructure are stunning, highlighting the fact that inefficiencies are prolific and changes are inevitable:• In distributed computing environments, up to 85% of computing capacity sits idle.• Consumer product and retail industries lose about $40 billion annually, or 3.5 percent of their sales, due to supply chain inefficiencies.• 70% on average is spent on maintaining current IT infrastructures versus adding new capabilities.• There is an explosion of information, e.g.54% growth in storage shipments every year.• 33% of consumers notified of a security breach will terminate their relationship with the company they perceive as responsible.Clearly, enterprises' IT departments need a bail-out -enter cloud computing as a disruptive approach for consuming and delivering IT based services.In simple terms, cloud computing provides anytime, anywhere access to IT resources delivered