Page 186 - 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

available resource that is big enough for nearly any task, at
commodity prices. Skepticism about the cloud exists, but lead-
ing implementers will prove its feasibility.
Every major technology firm believes in the future of cloud
computing—Microsoft, IBM, Google, Amazon.com, HP, Sun
Microsystems, Dell, Gartner, Accenture, and others. Start-ups

in Silicon Valley, notoriously long on computer skills and short
on cash, all believe in it. And early adopters have been opting
for more of it. In 2009, Amazon.com's use of network band-
width in renting cloud computing infrastructure on the Elas-
tic Compute Cloud surpassed its bandwidth use in online
retailing. It’s a remarkable new business for a company that was
already one of the most successful Internet businesses.

Every organization that adopts the practice of generously
tapping computing resources, whether they’re in the internal
cloud or the public cloud, will incur some waste, compared to
the previous generation. Someone will try a poorly aimed
marketing campaign or test a design that never had a chance
of getting off the ground. But to some extent, that’s a prereq-
uisite for the organization’s new approach to computing. Soft-
ware exists to mimic the events of the real world in binary
logic, and today’s software does a better job of it than ever

before. With access to cloud resources, more models and sim-
ulations can be conducted as a prelude to launching new
products or services in the real world. The possibilities of the
virtual world are growing in importance as cloud resources be-
come available.
Management still needs to police excesses, but executives
who demote or fire someone for using an hour too much cloud

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