Cloud Economics
Grazed from CloudTimes. Author: Xath Cruz. According to a study by the London School of Economics and Political Science, the development of cloud computing will result in economic growth, increased productivity, and promote change in the types of jobs and skills required by businesses. The study focuses on two industries – smartphone and aerospace service – and dives into the impact of cloud computing on said industries using the UK, Germany, Italy, and USA and the years 2010 and 2014 as subjects. Microsoft helped underwrite the study. The study claims that investments in cloud computing are contributing to job creation and growth in both the old and slow-growing aerospace sector and the relatively new, yet fast growing smartphone industry. Added to this, the cloud computing industry is also responsible for job creation via construction, staffing, and supply of the data centers that will host the cloud. Cloud computing also has the benefit of optimizing businesses as it frees up managerial staff and skilled employees, allowing them to focus on the areas of work that are more profitable... |
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Grazed from Phys.org. Author: Editorial Staff. Gross domestic product (GDP) can be boosted by cloud computing, the system in which remote computers on the Internet are used to store, manage and process data rather than the users' local machines. A report to be published in the International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management suggests that governments should collaborate to boost the adoption of cloud computing internationally. Marco Iansiti of Harvard Business School and Gregory Richards of Cambridge-based Keystone Strategy, LLC, have found that cloud computing is likely to extend economic growth by increasing the efficiency of information technology in developed economies and could foster growth in those economies where IT penetration is not yet fully mature. "Cloud computing is a further evolution and integration of server, internet and personal computing technology. It is a paradigm that pushes the three driving forces of power, accessibility and economy of scale beyond present constraints," the researchers say. They point out that during the coming decade cloud computing will give individuals and enterprises access to a vast processing power at a low cost that has not been possible before. The team has now developed a model to link IT capital investment to economic growth and applied their model to 45 countries... |
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Grazed from IT Business Edge. Author: Michael Vizard. Perhaps the biggest problem with cloud computing today is not the technologies involved, but rather the way IT organizations approach it. In a new “Cloud Computing for Dummies” book, Judith Hurwitz, president of the IT consulting firm Hurwitz & Associates, and other well-known industry analysts make the case that IT organizations are not taking enough of a holistic approach to managing the cloud. The economics of cloud computing, says Hurwitz, are far from simple. IT organizations, she says, need to pay particularly close attention to the characteristics of the application workloads that are being put into the cloud and, given network bandwidth fees, how much and how often data is going to need to be moved. Without a concerted plan, Hurwitz says IT organizations are going to wind up recreating the same mess that many of them have inside their data center in the cloud, which will be even harder to manage across multiple cloud service providers. The discipline needed to manage cloud computing, adds Hurwitz, begins with an emphasis on service-oriented architecture (SOA) fundamentals because at the end of the day, cloud computing is really all about the delivery of IT as a service... |
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Grazed from BusinessCloud9. Author: Stuart Lauchlan. Some of the fastest-growing emerging global markets are erecting new trade barriers that discriminate against foreign ICT and services – and holding back the progress of Cloud Computing. “The global scope of the problem poses immediate and long-term threats to the IT industry and the broader global economy,” warns the BSA. “ These threats cannot be overstated or ignored . Leading IT economies should press a concerted bilateral, multilateral, and regional effort to combat discriminatory trade barriers where they already exist and eradicate them before they spread further.”... |
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Contributed Article. Author: Sharon Wagner, CEO of Cloudyn
 Illuminating the Cloud for Increased ROIWhenever I speak with CIOs and IT professionals about the benefits of cloud computing, I encounter a wide range of responses – from enthusiasm, to guarded optimism, to even outright skepticism.
While it’s clear that the cloud is playing an increasingly central role in IT, both the opportunities and challenges inherent therein, can be tricky to navigate. This has created a situation where efficient and economical use of the cloud is not all that common.
By clarifying some of the major issues swirling around cloud computing, I hope to equip the business community with knowledge and insight that will allow them to better maximize their IT investments. |
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Grazed from CIO. Author: John R. Rymer. Cloud computing has reached an inflection point for enterprises — a comprehensive strategy for its use is now required. Until now, most companies had adopted cloud services in an ad hoc fashion, driven mostly by business leaders and developers looking to deliver new systems of engagement they felt could not be delivered by corporate IT — or in the time frame required. These ad hoc experiences prove that cloud solutions are now ready to be strategic resources in enterprise business technology portfolios. Only CIOs can help the business strike the right balance between the agility, efficiency, security, compliance, and integration that's required for a successful cloud strategy. This research introduces our Playbook approach to our cloud research, describing how to execute an enterprise cloud strategy from vision to planning to implementation through to ongoing optimization. It is the Executive Overview to our Playbook on achieving cloud economics, setting the context for 12 reports by Forrester analysts that address each major phase of the transformation... |
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Grazed from Forbes. Author: Joe McKendrick.
With the rise of cloud computing, we’re seeing more of a new breed of extremely lightweight company, unencumbered by capital investments, acting as a broker of services assembled from offerings drawn from or supported by third-party providers. Imagine the possibilities when this is combined with the emerging mobile “App Economy,” in which budding enterprises can be supported by micro-revenues streaming in from online app sales. One such story is Visible Market, creators of StockTouch, an app that tracks financial data. Visible Market, launched about a year ago, represents a new breed of business startup, built on the cloud and catering to a highly mobile user base... |
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Grazed from govWin. Author: Ronald Sherwin. The simple economic model for cloud computing is relatively straightforward:
Lobbyists have been successful in writing language into recent legislation (i.e., NDAA 2012) that establishes a pre-bias towards cloud computing, by stating that it is cheaper and more secure than existing capabilities. But do we really understand the true costs involved; what economists refer to as the marginal costs (since they are rarely included in a simplified cost analysis)... |
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