Page 184 - 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

Computer-literate business users will increasingly gain mastery
of these uses, in some cases taking advantage of new ease-of-
use features available through the cloud. If the use of these
features is misunderstood or minimized by the organization as
a whole, users should point out how other companies are gain-
ing competitive advantage from their own use of the cloud.

One of the most basic business values that the cloud will tend
to overturn is the perception that major computer resources are
expensive and are reserved for a specially trained cadre of data-
base administrators and business intelligence experts that know
how to use them. The name “glass house,” denoting the data
center, came into being because of the special air-conditioning
requirements that computers have tended to demand, along

with a desire to keep the average employee away from the ca-
bles, cords, and buttons that control them. It has simply fol-
lowed that major data center resources are to be husbanded
stringently. Whatever the virtues of that attitude at one time, it’s
now a liability. The walls of the glass house need to dissolve into
the constantly accessible, user self-provisioning internal cloud.
Whatever a given amount of x86 server power cost last
year, it will cost half as much next year as the 24-month cycles
of Moore’s law continue their inexorable march. No matter

how you do the math, throwing more computer power this
year than last year at a well-conceived design, a well-planned
customer analysis, or a well-targeted campaign is going to be a
good investment. This is not the same as building an expen-
sive, high-performance computing center. With public clouds,
you can apply a large cluster of servers to a problem for a few
hours or a few days a month at a price that most companies

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