NSBE Magazine - Fall 2011 - (Page 44)

What’s NeW? Cloud Computing “C By Peter Slavin loud computing,” the latest marketing rage in information technology, is nothing new for some large companies, but it has now reached far beyond them. “The cloud” is a metaphor for the Internet, and cloud computing refers to the use of Internet services by a user who has no knowledge of or control over the technologies behind them. In recent years, many small and mid-size companies have come to rely on computing services provided by firms such as Amazon.com, rather than spend millions of dollars on their own servers, storage and networking and security equipment. Now individual consumers are taking advantage of clou d computing, as well. Cloud computing, explains NSBE member Bob Patterson, strives to be like electricity. If someone needs electricity, he or she just plugs a device into an outlet and, at month’s end, receives a bill for the amount consumed. There’s no need to worry where the electricity is from or how it is generated or conveyed. Patterson, director of NSBE’s Information Technology Think Tank Special Interest Group, is an enterprise solution architect with Hewlett-Packard Company and previously a senior IT architect at IBM Corporation. He says cloud computing “is trying to make IT a utility. So I have my laptop, I have my cell phone, I have some kind of way to connect into the cloud and obtain the computing services I need. It’s just like plugging in a toaster to get the power required to run it.” What’s new about cloud computing, Patterson explains, is the explosion of services available on the Internet. For ordinary consumers, this means, for example, the ability to bank, shop and find driving directions online. “A consumer,” says Patterson, can “order pizza on one web- ‘Cloud computing’ refers to the use of internet services by a user who has no knowledge of or control over the technologies behind them. site and go to another website and change their seats on an airline and then go to another website and buy insurance.” For small and mid-sized businesses, says Patterson, this means those that don’t want to invest in a data center or in millions of dollars worth of equipment can find services such as data storage and logistics in the cloud. But cloud computing is not for everyone. One rental car company may purchase its own computers and be responsible for managing and maintaining them, while a rival may pay a third party to provide the applications that allow a customer to go online and calculate the car’s total price with discounts and taxes and then reserve it. In so doing, it relies on the cloud. Some potential users feel uncomfortable giving up control of their IT. In April, an outage of Amazon’s servers knocked out many of its cloud clients as well, and generated widespread criticism of the technology. Many large firms are looking at developing a hybrid cloud. They would continue using their own internal, highly sophisticated computing systems (in-house email, for example), which amount to a cloud for their employees, but connect to an external cloud provided by third parties for specialized applications that support manufacturing, shipping, scheduling and the like. There’s plenty of excitement out there about cloud computing, Patterson notes. Developers of the technology, he says, find excitement “in taking things to the masses and seeing what happens to it.” Consumers are turned on by the convenience of being able to do much more on their computers. And the companies that build the equipment have found a huge new market. “Almost every company has a cloud strategy,” he says. ■ www.nsbe.org 44 • nsbe magazine • fall 2011 http://www.Amazon.com http://www.nsbe.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NSBE Magazine - Fall 2011

NSBE Magazine - Fall 2011
Contents
The Next Level
Achievement Finds an Ally
Leadership, Your Way
The Programs Zone
Dr. Philicity Williams of the National Security Agency
Chapter News
Membership News
International News
NSBE Advisor Makes History
Pack Out Pittsburgh!
Empowered by Vision
Top Officers
St. Lucian Students Thrive at IIT
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
SEEKing Excitement for STEM
What’s New?
NSBE Calendar
The Professional’s Perspective
Shifting to Renewables for Electric Power
Alumni Officers
The Japan Effect
AE Members on the Move
Golden Torch Honoree
‘Brother Founder’ Donates $100K to NSBE
XL’ent!
Building Successful AE Chapters
Advertisers Index

NSBE Magazine - Fall 2011