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Cloud solves traditional services bottlenecks [ITWeb](ITWeb Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Cloud computing is reshaping the computing and Internet landscapes, says Huawei Enterprise. Cloud computing is solving the traditional bottlenecks in service areas, especially long time-to-market periods for new services, low resource utilisation, and high opex for enterprises and telcos. So says Derek Friend, director for southern and eastern Africa at Huawei Enterprise, adding that another challenge for both enterprises and carriers is new Internet-based business models, customised requirements and new services. With more cost-effective capacity, owing to innovation, cloud collaboration and the pooling of ideas among key players, people and companies need to connect in better ways, says Friend. "Cloud computing is reshaping the computing and Internet landscapes. With breakthroughs being made in relevant service and business models, cloud computing involves three key elements, namely: resource pooling, capability supply, and the 'as-a-service' model. Through these technology combinations, cloud computing will inevitably expand its role as a backbone for ICT," he says. In essence, he says, cloud computing is the supply and combination of high performance computing hardware and its processing capabilities across shared networking resources. The cloud or "as-a-service" model has gained popularity due to the range of services offered, not the technologies or resources involved to manage it, Friend adds. According to Friend, historically, organisations initially bought full-priced software and prepared the necessary resources for the software, regardless of it being used or not. He points out progress has been made toward sharing software on the Internet at a lower cost without needing to prepare for reserved resources, but a fixed cost was still incurred for the usage. However, he explains, with advances in technology and high-performance processing, organisations can directly use the software and application function (as-a-service) provided in the cloud on a pay-per-use basis without any awareness of the back-end infrastructure involved. "Despite the rapid adoption of cloud computing and the huge impact it has on businesses, misinformation unfortunately still prevails and many myths are built around the deployment and running applications in the cloud." He notes the public cloud might be right for some activities, private cloud for others and dedicated hosting for legacy applications; thus getting the right overall cloud mix or hybrid solution could be best. "It is not surprising, therefore, security concerns are one of the forefront factors for many businesses when considering their cloud strategy." Friend believes network risks are the same as those faced by traditional IT solutions, with the main difference being when operating in the cloud, security no longer rests on-premises but is instead a shared responsibility with the cloud provider. "A good provider will have multiple security measures in place, such as dedicated hardware firewalls and advanced encryption through to intrusion detection systems as well as data centres accredited to the highest possible PCI DSS, and ISO standards." Friend is of the view that, as with any game-changing solution, the ever-increasing shift to the cloud will require a host of cloud-savvy experts whose skills and knowledge will maintain and strengthen growth and development. (c) 2014 ITWeb Limited. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |