The Case for Cloud Computing
In the situation of enterprise software packages, the available implementations have usually been extremely complex and expensive. They call for a company in Waterville to invest heavily on capital expenditure to construct an in-house data center with office space, environmental controls, electrical energy, dedicated computers, storage arrays, and network capacity. On top of all this costly infrastructure is the requirement for a complex software stack for the program. After the software has been implemented, you will also need a team of experts to set up, manage, and execute the software. But that was before the advent of cloud computing.
Cloud computing is a technological innovation that takes advantage of the internet and central off-site servers to maintain data and applications. Cloud computing allows consumers and businesses to use software applications with no set up and access their private files at any computer with internet service. This innovation enables considerably more efficient computing by centralizing hard drives, memory, processing, and bandwidth.
Cloud computing is so efficient and inexpensive that a well admired financial research newsletter has recently called it the "$59 computer." Of course there is not in fact an actual piece of hardware called the $59 computer -- it is just a generic term to refer to the general notion of cloud computing being so affordable that using it can reduce your company's processing costs to the point where your overall expenditures would be equivalent to paying only $59 per computer end user.
One crucial point that quite a few IT departments ignore or miscalculate is the T1 Line Bandwidth requirements for supporting cloud computing. In a recent case study, the chief information director of a insurance firm said she had to enhance the company's network power by a factor of five when they moved to one vendor's cloud computing product. This is not a guideline for everyone, but it's a great example of what a single organization implemented. If you are preparing to migrate to a cloud computing strategy, do yourself a favor by first talking about your bandwidth needs with an independent T1 line consultant who can provide you all your possible alternatives such as Gigabit Ethernet service.
