The current buzz word in the networking community is Cloud Computing. Everybody seems to be talking about Cloud, Cloud, and Cloud. Cloud technology is not a new technology. Businesses can use applications without installing them in their environment but can access their files, applications etc from any computer with internet connection. Basically Cloud requires a fast internet connection for providing seamless connectivity to the applications and services. As cloud computing provides a huge cost benefit to the organizations, the need for bandwidth would increase. As a result service providers would have to upgrade their infrastructure to cater to the emerging needs of the industry. What is the result? It could be a good time for infrastructure vendors such as HP, Cisco, Juniper, IBM, Google(?) etc.
We can think of certain drivers for change here. The key drivers in this change process are the cost, the infrastructure, increasing use of internet, increasing number of enterprise customers. These are uncertain but have potential impact on the industry. These are the results of advances in the technology and there is wider public acceptance for these technologies.
What is the likely scenario in 2020?
The key drivers mentioned above would change the industry structure. The cloud computing has already given birth to SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). The impact of these key drivers of change is going to be felt in the current industry leaders such as Oracle, SAP etc that are providing the softwares. With the implementation of SaaS, PaaS, IaaS these companies could get huge revenue hit. We might also see a few consolidations in the industry whilst some perish in the process. We might also see ugly wars between the companies to attract the customers (Microsoft Vs Google??). On the positive note, you might see a number of new entrants into the industry. There is going to be a paradigm shift in the industry in the way it is structured now.
But…..Hold on.
There are some inherent problems to cloud computing implementation that undermine its importance. Since internet is the most widely used and cost effective solution for the application of cloud computing, Quality of Service is of utmost concern. Network congestion, jitters, undersea cable cuts and security of data and applications might greatly affect the performance of the cloud and the implementation of the cloud. The inherent inefficiencies in the network protocols and web services would further affect the cloud. Nevertheless as the necessity is the mother of invention, by 2020, you might see a lot of innovations, improvements in these fields (Juniper has already brought 100Gig Ethernet Interface for the router) and Cloud could become one of the successful technologies.
Do you think Cloud Computing is the future?
-Deepak
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