The Case for Cloud Computing
In the setting of enterprise software programs, the existing implementations have typically been extremely complex and costly. They necessitate a company in Virgin to invest heavily on capital expenditure to build an in-house data center with office space, temperature controls, electrical power, dedicated servers, storage arrays, and network bandwidth. Along with all this costly infrastructure is the need for a complicated software stack for the application. Even after the software has been written, you will also need a group of experts to set up, manage, and run the software. But this was before the development of cloud computing.
Cloud computing is a method that makes use of the internet and centralized off-site servers to maintain applications and data. Cloud computing allows clients and businesses to make use of software applications without set up and access their private files at any computing device with internet access. This technology enables considerably more efficient computing by centralizing storage, processing, memory, and bandwidth.
Cloud computing is so reliable and low-cost that a much revered financial research newsletter has just dubbed it the "$59 computer." Of course there is not really an actual piece of hardware called the $59 computer -- it is simply a generic term to make reference to the general concept of cloud computing being so inexpensive that making use of it can decrease your company's computing expenses to the level where your total expenses would be like to paying just $59 per computer user.
One crucial fact that quite a few IT departments neglect or misjudge is the T1 Line Internet demands for supporting cloud computing. In one case study, the chief information officer of a insurance firm said he had to enhance the company's network power by a factor of five when they switched to one vendor's cloud computing solution. This is not a rule of thumb for every person, but it's a good case of what a single organization implemented. If you are planning to migrate to a cloud computing solution, do yourself a favor by first discussing your bandwidth requirements with an independent T1 line consultant who can provide you all your available alternatives such as Gigabit Ethernet service.
