PENANG, Malaysia—Cloud computing, or the concept of having services delivered through the Internet, has been the real buzzword in the information technology (IT) scene in the past few years.
What may sound like a vague idea to most nonprofessionals is actually simpler than many consumers think, IT industry experts insist. If you’ve ever sent an e-mail, posted a tweet or gawked at your office mate’s vacation photos on Facebook, then you’ve used cloud computing applications.
But it gets more complicated than that when this concept is applied in the world of business.
Intel Corp., one of the world’s leading technology companies, said cloud computing—being a new way of doing things—still makes many corporate executives a little apprehensive.
Intel said it has firsthand experience with this, with officials saying the company’s own adoption of cloud computing applications in its operations came with its own set of headaches. But the results have been well worth it, the company said, and it wants to help firms around the world to enjoy the same benefits as well.
“We have seen real benefit with the cloud. We’ve realized $17 million in real annual cost savings already accruing from our cloud computing journey,” said Liam Keating, Intel’s IT director for the Asia-Pacific region.
Speaking to journalists at the recent annual Intel Cloud Computing Summit here, Keating said the fears of corporations like banks and telecommunications companies have been understandable.
These companies handle large amounts of their clients’ personal information, so having this data stored “on the cloud,” or having the applications to analyze and manage this data being delivered over the Internet may sound dangerous.
Simply put, Keating said companies have just two choices: to adopt cloud computing within their organizations or get left behind by competitors that are riding the Internet wave.
Intel is one of the founding members and one of the leaders of the Open Data Center Alliance, a group of multinationals that aims to create international standards for cloud computing. The group is made up of about 100 companies representing about $50 billion in IT spending every year.
Companies in the alliance, which include brands like BMW, Shell and the Marriot chain of hotels, also publish their experience with cloud computing in the hope of imparting lessons to others that are just starting out.
Keating said a company today can no longer afford not to be accessible to its customers online.
Intel expects that the number of Internet users in the world will double to about two billion by 2015. The number of devices, meanwhile, is expected to triple to 15 billion in the same period.
Allyson Klein, director of technology leadership marketing at Intel’s data center group, said consumers today have become more demanding, requiring that companies always be accessible and that services be available 24 hours a day.
“Imagine going to Gmail and waiting three days to get a new e-mail account. It seems inconceivable,” Ms. Klein said. In the next few years, she said it won’t just be people communicating with one another using Internet connected devices.
“We’re going to see devices talking to each other,” Klein said.
Modern-day examples are weather-monitoring equipment talking to water sprinklers to help farmers regulate the amount of water their crops get.
The result is an explosion in the amount of data that computer networks are required to manage and store. For most companies, dealing with this information on their own can be overwhelming, not to mention expensive.
Through cloud computing, companies need only to pay someone else to do it.
Keating said through cloud computing, companies have been able to come out with new services almost as quickly as new ideas pop into their officials’ heads. “You can grow faster and respond to market changes quicker. That’s what you can do with cloud computing,” he said.
Meanwhile, Keating said Intel itself saves millions every year in direct and indirect costs through cloud computing, which allows a company to rent hardware and software, instead of acquiring and developing them.
And rather than be burdened with equipment that becomes obsolete almost as soon as it is delivered to your office, companies are assured of the best quality through cloud computing.
Keating said the shift to the cloud will not be easy, but this does not make it less necessary. “A lot has been done, but there’s a lot more to do,” he said. Intel itself is only halfway through this transformation.
“This is a multiyear journey and it will not happen overnight,” Keating said. But he assured that whatever lessons that Intel and the rest of the Open Data Center Alliance learn along the way, everyone else can follow.