Page 13 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

INTRODUCTION

There’s a kind of awe associated with what’s called “cloud
computing,” an impression that something momentous is
afoot, as if the man behind the curtain was about to unveil
something really big—and this time, for real.
I think it’s those big data centers that we keep hearing
about, the ones that Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Amazon, Sales

force.com, and Facebook have been building. In Chicago,
Microsoft threw open the doors to its newest data center in Sep-
tember, and a truck backed in over the concrete floor, de-
positing a container filled with racks of servers. Instead of being
unloaded, the container was plugged in, and more than 2,000
servers instantly came to life. There were 11 similar contain-
ers already in operation and room for 44 more, while on the

xi