M4D in the cloud

The term cloud computing has become the buzz word in IT over the past year or two.

What is cloud computing? Is it necessary? Why do we care? How does social networking fit in here? Can we utilise this technology?

Cloud computing allows software services to be accessed over a network of servers. This network is collectively known as 'the cloud'. Computing at the scale of the cloud allows users to access supercomputer-level power. Using a thin client or other access point, like an iPhone, BlackBerry or laptop, users can reach into the cloud for resources as they need them. For this reason, cloud computing has also been described as 'on-demand computing'.

Internet is utilised as a vehicle but it is not the cloud. Google, Amazon, eBay, etc. utilise cloud technologies to provide services via the Internet. The cloud technologies are an operating technology built on a vast number of computers that provide a service.

Management for Design’s cloud services offering include Business Performance Visualisation, Resource and Planning Management, Client Relationship Management and core Financial Services.

Cloud technologies are about to revolutionise our systems.... And mostly, the way we do business.

These days many cloud computing platforms are adding or enhancing their database offerings, thus becoming more compelling to enterprises. Of course, a fraction of enterprise data already exists in public clouds. According to David Linthicum at InfoWorld there are two core reasons for the migration to cloud based solutions.

"The first and most critical reason for the migration is that data in most enterprises is a huge mess. For years, databases have been built around applications or some tactical need, creating of data silos that are difficult to integrate or to even provide a common view of business information. The advantage of migrating some data to cloud-based databases is around the cost and ease of doing so."

"The second reason is performance. Databases in enterprises often don't provide data in a timely manner to support those running the business. Queries that should take 10 or 15 minutes instead take hours. Cloud-based databases, if engineered correctly, typically provide much better performance than traditional on-premise systems. This is due to the fact that they can gather up as many processor instances as required to complete the database processing quickly."

The ease of provisioning, cost advantage, and better performance may mean that a 'cloud solution my offer your business the best value when it comes to database processing.