Cloud Computing - Pie in the Sky?

For those that don't know, cloud computing is the new black, or it is for today's stressed out IT departments under huge pressure to allow businesses to blossom in the digital age, but with only half the budget of last year.  In a nutshell, cloud computing is the development and use of computer technology, but over the internet. Scaleable resources offered in real-time as an online service to users who will be able to let 'the cloud' take care of all their infrastructure needs. Quite literally, it's IT in the sky.

The big cloud is still really only a mass of frozen droplets when it comes to dealing with complex business needs. Google's "platform as a service" App Engine is in preview mode and Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud operating system and the related Windows Azure Platform Services remain in the early development stage. We may begin to see some Azure services in the second half of 2009, but 2010 is a more realistic timeframe for general availability.  But once the big boys get it together, and they will, cloud computing will transform the way computers are used, and businesses are run. There’s the obvious cash savings for starters as rooms stuffed with racks of servers storing huge packets of data become a thing of the past. More importantly, it will change the way we work as it enables far greater flexibility on location as well as in-built and easily accessible ways to share information and collaborate.

Businesses aside, for the average consumer demanding only limited storage; the cloud is already upon us. There’s Apple's 'Mobile Me', and, of course, the long awaited Google Drive or ‘G Drive’.

Many say this is the real breakthrough that will change the face of personal computing as computers themselves become little more than low-cost entry devices requiring little or no in-built storage. One of the most important aspects of reduced hardware prices are the social implications as the internet becomes accessible to low-income families who may have been reluctant in the past to invest in a costly machine. Finally, at last, it seems everyone and anyone will be able to join the digital revolution.