Date:24/02/2011
‘The Cloud’ is the latest technology buzzword – everyone in the industry is talking about it, everyone in the industry is trying to find out how they can use it, or find a product that uses it that they can sell to their clients...
But what is it? How can you use it? Why is it suddenly the thing that everyone wants a piece of?
The Cloud concept is simple – a group of computer-based services that don’t require the end user to know the physical location or server setup in order to use it, according to Wikipedia – To give just one example from the many cloud services available; Google Docs is a cloud application that provides me with Microsoft Office-style products, with the particular twist that it’s purely web-based, so it runs through your web browser. The ‘cloud’ point here is that when you finish writing your document, you don’t save it to your PC. When you hit save, it saves to ‘the cloud’ – in this case, on Google’s servers.
So why is this a good thing? Well, it means that if you want to work on the document again, you don’t have to be on the PC that you wrote the document on – with any computer, or mobile device, with an internet connection you can log in to Google Docs and continue working on your file; no CD’s, no USB drives, no emailed files required.
As another example, Cloud servers are the next thing to come of age; historically, if a hosting company wanted to set up a new server, they’d need to purchase a machine, install the software and install the machine itself in its datacentre. If they wanted to upgrade the memory, they’d need to switch off the computer, open it up, and install the memory, before firing it back up again.
With virtualisation coming of age, the system administrator can simply spin up a new virtual server on their control panel, and a fully installed and ready-to-go windows server is now part of the network ‘in the cloud’. Upgrading the memory is just the click of a button on the control panel. Cloud monitoring software can even spin up a new server automatically if the current server network is overloaded, rebuilding clustered databases onto the new server to ease the load, automatically, in the cloud, while the system admin is fast asleep at home.
Brilliant, no doubt, but why now, and why is the cloud computing idea spreading like an epidemic? Even for an industry as fast-moving as IT, the all-conquering and oh-so-sudden prevalence of the cloud has happened, seemingly, at lightning speed.
Malcolm Gladwell, in his book ‘The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference’, provides a simple and fascinating answer. ‘The Tipping Point’ asserts that when the conditions are just right, the tiniest change in one of three vital elements can push an idea to epidemic proportions.
Gladwell’s Law of the few dictates the need for a few people to champion an idea; connectors, who move about in different social circles, bringing people and ideas together; Mavens, who specialise in very tight niche subjects, and become experts in that field, combining that knowledge with an inner need to help people with their advice; and Salesmen, who have brilliant, natural powers of persuasion. A few of these 3 types of people are instrumental in bringing an idea from the ‘innovators’ to the mainstream masses.
The stickiness factor talks about the idea’s ability to hold interest, to be worth keeping; an idea must be sticky if any kind of hype, discussion or takeup is to be long-lasting.
Lastly, the Power of Context shows that environmental conditions must be just right and, importantly, that even the slightest change in environmental conditions, or the context that the idea or product is evolving in, can spark an epidemic.
The Cloud delights the mavens and salesmen; it’s technically both simple and brilliant; it’s easy to explain; it reduces running costs, setup costs, it’s easier on the environment as it reduces the number of redundant machines running power, as well as reducing the need for additional ‘physical’ machines; it’s a very easy sell.
The pure flexibility of the cloud means that connectors can hook companies up with cloud based services in every industry; there’s a use for the cloud for everyone, and the benefits listed above are difficult to ignore.
Lastly, the Context – it’s absolutely perfect; we all want to do our bit for the environment; with energy costs escalating, we want to reduce our power costs too; now that broadband and Wi-Fi is everywhere, internet connectivity is no longer a problem, and the rise of the laptop, the iPhone and iPad means that people want access to their stuff everywhere, all the time, on everything, now, and the Cloud is the perfect vehicle to deliver those needs.
And why is it called the cloud? When we’re designing software, system designers generally use an icon that looks like a cloud to indicate the general concept of saving to the internet.
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