Page 108 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

MANA GEMENT STRATEGIES F O R THE CL OUD R EV OL UTION

the data center with servers, network capacity, and disks. The
need for surplus capacity is so taken for granted that it is rarely
questioned as an IT manager proceeds to supply it. Not doing
so would be more likely to raise eyebrows.
In a world of increasing operations costs, increasing energy
costs, and rising global temperatures, such an approach may

no longer be viable. Businesses frequently take it upon them-
selves to operate in both a cost-effective and a responsible
manner. Hybrid cloud computing, where the private cloud
shakes hands with the hyperefficient public cloud, will be the
new way to do so.
Before getting to such a solution, however, every business
isgoingtohavetoconfrontasetofwell-entrenchedproblems.

Anyone who has ever been responsible for some part of his
company’s computing knows the constant tension between
the need to maintain operations and the desire to put more
resources into software applications and equipment to sup-
port new products and services.

Reduced Overhead, Steady-State Operation

When I joined Computerworld in 1984, a constant topic in the
news was the so-called application backlog, the long list of soft-
ware needed by businesses that wasn’t getting written. The
in-house developers charged with producing new applications
were usually behind on the deadlines set for the current proj-
ects. They were frequently called away from development
efforts to troubleshoot problems that kept popping up in the

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