Page 29 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

THE C L O UD REV O L UTION

only slightly more expensive than free. The technology con-
vergence has found expression in a new distribution model
for computing. So in addition to technology, the cloud is a
business model that makes a new form of computing widely
available at prices that heretofore would have been consid-
ered impossible.

To the technology and business model, we must add one
final defining characteristic. What people call “the cloud” to-
day is activated by a few preset end user actions, such as telling
Facebook to upload a picture or post a comment on a wall. In
the deeper example of sending a workload to the cloud and
telling it how it’s to be run, the user has assumed a new rela-
tionship with the data center that has not been possible for

most remote users in the past. The cloud gives the user “pro-
grammatic control” over a part of the data center, the ability
to command a server in the data center to run the program
she has selected and sent.
The cloud user doesn’t have to ask someone to intervene
to set up connections, turn on a powerful machine, and let
him know what software is there to run. On the contrary, he
“self-provisions” the computers he needs by swiping a credit
card and clicking off a checklist of what servers he wants to ac-

tivate with a mouse. For people who have a large task that they
want to execute but don’t want to make out a purchase order
to buy a new server, await delivery, then ask IT staffers to con-
figure it, this is as close to manna from heaven as they’re
going to get.
Despite the ambiguity of the definition of the cloud, a fun-
damental shift is under way. The data centers that serve the

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