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INVITED VIEWPOINT
Journal of Enterprise Information Management
It's written in the Cloud:
The hype and promise of Cloud Computing
Amir M. Sharif
Brunel Business School
Brunel Univeristy, UK
Amir.Sharif@Brunel.ac.uk
Purpose of paper:
This viewpoint discusses the emerging IT platform of Cloud Computing and discusses where and
how this has developed in terms of the collision between internet and enterprise computing
paradigms – and hence why cloud computing will be driven not by computing architectures but
more fundamental ICT consumption behaviours.
Design/methodology/approach: The approach has been based upon the discussion and recent
developments of Software as a Service (SaaS) and associated ICT computing metaphors and is
largely based upon the contemporary discussion at the moment of the impact of social, open
source and configurable technology services.
Findings: It is suggested that whilst cloud computing and SaaS are indeed innovations within
ICT, the real innovation will come when such platforms allow new industries, sectors, ways of
doing business, connecting with and engaging with people to emerge. Thus looking beyond the
technology itself.
Research limitations/applications: Author viewpoint only, not research based.
Practical applications: Brings together some of the recent discussions within the popular as well
as business and computing press on social networking, open source and utility computing.
Social implications: Suggests that cloud computing can potentially transform and change the
way in which IS and IT are accessed, consumed, configured and used in daily life.
Originality / value of paper: Author viewpoint on a contemporary subject.
Keywords: Cloud Computing, Software as a Service, Configurability, Socio-Technical impact
Type of Paper: Viewpoint
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Cloud Computing is the latest technology that is being feted by the IT industry as the
next (potential) revolution to change how the internet and information systems operate
and are used by the world at large. The concept owes much to the evolution of
infrastructures based upon client-server, Application Service Provider (ASP), Service
Oriented Architecture (SOA), Grid Computing and even more historically, “time-slicing”
of mainframe computers. The resulting technology ultimately resembles a mélange of
these techniques – and no less a galaxy of three or more letter acronyms to boot.
But what is the cloud anyway and why should anyone care? In a nutshell, the idea is that
this is an accessible resource of hardware and software which an organization or
individual can harness, anywhere in the world via the internet. This is not a new idea, by
any means, and it certainly has its roots in distributed grid-based computing. The best
example of this idea is the comparatively successful SETI project, which allows
individuals to download and run analyses of radio telescope data in the search for
extraterrestrial life (UCAL, 2009). The difference between that distributed (and global
citizen-driven) approach to distributed computing and what the cloud offers, is that the
access model shifts from a push of software and resources, to a pull of software and
resources: as needed, non-time bound, and paid for as required by the consumer. Thus
the hope for this type of utilitarian-based information system is that it will provide
configurable IT building upon the above notions of distributed third party software and
service providers (much like the ASP model). These providers will give access to
resources – thus SaaS, Software as a Service – using the now well respected approach
of the internet as the transportation layer (O’Reilly, 2004).. These resources, which may
also include the underlying hardware assets as well, can thus be combined and
recombined by anyone who wishes to access cloud services. And this is the significant
difference from previous technology platforms that have tried to commoditize computing.
Potentially new configurations and suites of software/hardware can then be brought
together and tailored for specific business and consumer needs and contexts – maybe
only existing for a brief period of time and then being released back into the “vapour” of
the cloud. This highlights another innovation of this platform: the requirement not to be
tied into direct capital investments in technology (be they server farms, data centres,
software licences and the legions of support and other technical staff to maintain them).
This challenge to IT is significant and has immediate impact if brought to full realization
of course, including the potential to redesign and change the IT skills landscape.
How would cloud computing work though and just what could the implications for
technology vendors be? Well, a manufacturing company say, may require software
components which allow them to carry out accounts payable, accounts receivable,
inventory management, supplier logistics, sales order processing, e-Commerce and
customer relationship management activities. By using and accessing services through
the cloud, the components relevant to their business could be bought on a pay-and-go
basis, without the need to purchase whole ERP, finance or CRM suites. Instead the
process becomes decoupled from software and hardware vendors, and a relationship is
then formed directly with the middle-man: the cloud computing provider. At the moment,
both Amazon and Microsoft are in the running to be such intermediaries to anyone who
wishes to tap into seemingly unlimited resources (BBC, 2008). Clearly this means that
monolithic ERP and CRM solutions will then tend towards becoming a thing of the past,
with many vendors (such as SAP notably) beginning to struggle to address and achieve
the aims of integrated, yet decoupled, non-monolithic enterprise systems (so-called
ERPII).
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The advent of the second generation of the internet, so-called Web 2.0, and its cousin
Open Source, are therefore the perfect backdrop to cloud computing (in metaphorical
terms they are the “sky”). Web 2.0 is clearly based upon the notion of rapid, highly
configurable and customizable ICT platforms and artefacts that extend and transform
communication and collaboration amongst humans, as opposed to between computers
(Casarez et al., 2008). Witness the exponential growth of sites such as MySpace,
Facebook, del.ico.us, digg, flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Bebo and others in the space of little
over 3 years. We are now living in an era where the sharing of, contribution, publication
and distribution of an individual’s own content is king. This truly is a major revolution of
course, second only to the invention of the printing press in the same terms. Cloud
computing then, posits an (almost) infinite yet discernable context to enable configurable
and customizable computing to become available. This aggregation and packaging of
self-selected software and hardware in an entirely requirements-driven manner, cleaves
in two the traditional marriage of users and proprietary platforms. Hence in the example
given previously, it would not be unfeasible to purchase specific business software
components from Oracle, SAP, Microsoft and even Apple and link them together, via the
cloud (thus also satisfying the inter-operability goals of Enterprise Application
Integration, EAI).
But is Cloud Computing the new nirvana – and is it Web 3.0 even? The concept is still
dependent upon the decoupling of enterprise systems into interface-ready modules
which require an existing software architecture such as web services to be in place first.
Secondly, software and hardware vendors will now have to eventually think about giving
in to this open-source-inspired view of ICT consumption (and will not roll over and give in
without a fight either). But this presents a huge risk in competitive advantage terms –
and the loss of earning power through the loss of the lucrative licensing business model
that the industry has learned to love. Thirdly then, those IS platforms concerned (ERP,
CRM, supply chain and e-Commerce) need to be re-engineered and many vendors will
face a long journey to release their code into the wild. Some are still recovering from the
shift to leaner methods of information management – i.e. the markup revolution through
XML and other “rapid” data sharing languages (North, 2008). Fourthly, at the same time,
there is a major risk inherent in the handing over of company and individual data to third
party cloud computing providers and the key issue of data security. And fifthly, the
associated cost escalator of the usage and maintenance of (initially “thin”) cloud services
that will be implied. Would you be willing to hand over all your customer information to
Amazon, so they can rent you ICT resources (servers, data farms, applications) on a per
minute basis? It’s a tough choice, although liberated by the massive savings that could
be made. Compare for example, the cost of simulating drug interactions in a
computerized virtual lab which would require a grid of dedicated machines and
associated high-end simulation software as reported in recent Microsoft adverts (Wired,
2009). The cost comparison when adopting cloud resources would be in the ratio of tens
of millions of dollars as compared to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Given these
financial differentials, and the gearing back down to the consumers of such services,
who will ultimately regulate and ensure that such services would be fairly run and
administered? We are talking about computing as a pure utility now of course – and we
all know and love our utility operators and all they stand for don’t we.
Perhaps this view is quite cynical. But I think the main challenge to cloud computing and
the hype that must be overcome in due course is the computing equivalent of “it’s the
economy stupid!”. That is, replacing the word economy with the word, consumers. For
that’s exactly what this will be about – the consumption and hence economical supply
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and demand of software as a service. This next phase of computing truly requires a
deeper understanding, more than ever before of consumers and not computer-based
behavior. And yes, even the esoteric aspects of structure and agency (how we change
and use technology and vice versa). Another inherent challenge that actually is an
opportunity is the chance to tap into the SME enterprise application market.
For a long time, one of many holy grails within the software industry has been how to
make more of the potentially lucrative SME enterprise application market, which has until
recently always been a poor relation to its larger sibling, the corporate market. The
largescale vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, Sun, Oracle and the like have always
believed that by adapting their existing products which are traditionally consumed by
corporates (proverbial “mountains”), to the smaller market (“molehills” in comparison),
they can expand and deepen their dominance. Clearly Google has usurped them
through the availability of online tools such as their Google Docs suite of applications for
free (Stross, 2008). The SME market is more fickle by nature, as such organisations are
not as tied-in to their investment as larger corporates may be, due to the size of the
expenditures involved. They are also less sensitive to sudden changes in technological
fashion, due to the fact they traditionally are late adopters of emerging technologies.
Hence the real and fundamental success of cloud computing is actually “up in the cloud”
above these mountains and molehills. This relates to vendors, service providers and
consumers of such services understanding their specific computing needs and
expectations – and realizing that IS consumers are now both users as well as
configurators of the available cloud resources. Practitioners and academics alike should
support this technology more as it develops, not just as a minor incremental stage in the
evolution of internet computing; but as a perceptible shift in our relationship with a
virtualized economy. There are clearly aspects of this technology which will require input
to understand consumption patterns of software as well as matching these to how
business processes occur. Thus aspects of participatory design of such services are
key. But most of all and as signified by the recent interest in human-centric patterns of
thinking (such as the growth of behavioural finance and economics to explain human
decision-making) also requires input from non-technical specialists and experts too
(Thaler and Sunstein, 2009).
However, just like a cloud the hope must be that these ideals do not evaporate into
empty promises yet again. Or worse still, shower us with yet more technology which we
may well do without. As ever we must decide by ourselves if such tools are really
supporting and not hindering progress in terms of how we interact, exchange and bring
information, content and knowledge together in a trust-based medium.
I ultimately do believe that cloud computing, if used and adopted properly can unite,
identify and create wholly new business sectors and industries just as the original
internet revolution did. Certainly for large scale and complex human-driven endeavours
which require a multitude of systems and stakeholders to come together, such as where
the introduction of electronic platforms are taking shape in local and central governments
worldwide, cloud computing has the most promise – but where it also brings with it the
most expectations.
Amir M. Sharif
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Disclaimer
The author wishes to assert that the views expressed in this article are solely that of the
author.
References
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