Cloud Computing: What Upstream Oil and Gas Can Learn From Other Industries
Robert K. Perrons, Adam Hems · Journal of Petroleum Technology · 2013
Management The topic of “the cloud” has attracted significant attention throughout the past few years (Cherry 2009; Sterling and Stark 2009) and, as a result, academics and trade journals have created sever-al competing definitions of “cloud computing” (e.g., Motahari-Nezhad et al. 2009). Underpinning this article is the definition put forward by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, which describes cloud computing as “a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction” (Garfinkel 2011, p. 3). Despite the lack of consensus about definitions, however, there is broad agreement on the growing demand for cloud computing. Some estimates suggest that spending on cloud-related technologies and services in the next few years may climb as high as USD 42 billion/year (Buyya et al. 2009). Roster et al. (2010) identify three of the more commonly cited reasons for migrating functions and capabilities to the cloud: Cost Reduction. For example, insurance companies are seeking more flexible cost structures, and the cloud allows firms to shift costs to an operating expense rather than a capital outlay, thereby giving them a highly flexible “pay as you go” resource. Deployment Flexibility. In the media industry, for instance, the type of content that consumers request can suddenly become viral and then immediately fall out of fashion. Demand patterns can therefore swing profoundly from one extreme to the next. A cloud-based infrastructure affords companies in these industries a high degree of flexibility with regard to the amount of computing and data-storage resources that they need at any moment. Implementation Speed. Doctors in small medical practices usually do not have their own information technology (IT) departments, and cloud computing therefore holds appeal for such enterprises because the technical support bundled into cloud service packages provides the most value for these small businesses in the shortest possible time. Despite the compelling case for moving toward the cloud, however, the absorption of these technologies and services has been uneven. Some industries—most notably, the financial services and telecommunications sectors—have been relatively quick adopters, while others have approached the cloud more cautiously and slowly.