Prelude:
Incidentally, the day I am writing this blog coincides with the annoucement of iCloud services by the Apple, iCloud is expected to offer modes of storing your personal data in cloud, including streaming music.
Introduction:
Any company which is oblivious of the future technology has always seen it struggles to catch up. Most of its research cost is spent trying to catch up than leading the race. Even bitter is the situation of a company which thinks it doesn’t have the need to innovate owing to not being an IT company. They keep saying that it wants to concentrate on the core competency. But owing to their policy they end up spending more time and money than normal companies, as there are efforts to unlearn what they learnt and later they have to play catch up with the technology race. This leaves hardly any time to catch up with its competitors.
About cloud computing:
Any blog explaining effects of cloud computing should not start without explaining about Cloud in the beginning. Wikipedia states “Cloud computing refers to the on-demand provision of computational resources (data, software) via a computer network, rather than from a local computer”. For first timers, with the mention of Cloud computing many of us start thinking infrastructure being available at remote location. But cloud extends to mean “applications made available on cloud”, “client systems being available on cloud” and “platform/solution stack being available on cloud”.
If interested one can read more about cloud computing using these links:
Wikipedia link : http://goo.gl/hx4Ax
Howstuffworks link : http://goo.gl/8PTpR
Changes in workplaces owing to introduction of cloud computing:
Enough has been said about advantages of Cloud to the companies in various forums and news articles don’t want to reiterate that again. What I am trying is to give a glimpse of the how our workplace would have got changed once cloud computing is implemented to the hilt.
1. Workstation to tablet:
Cloud environment would mean there is no requirement for employees to have dorky workstation nor even a heavier laptop. I understand people not liking term heavier laptop. All cloud would require is a simple tablet PC. Even something as simple as a netbook or a Samsung Galaxy Tab will do that job, as the processing ability and the storage has now moved to the server.
2. Seating arrangements:
This might sound radical, but since the workplaces are not required to keep huge machines, organizations will see that there might be more synergy with making people seat in the groups. Of course the seats would be comfortable but not arranged like it is now. Especially those who do similar type of job. And the manager might actually like that fact that they might end up getting a bigger seat comparatively.
In fact, the best way to understand is ask your father on how his work desk was, during the days when there were no computer and just papers. Consider this adding a workstation (A monitor, A huge CPU, a power port etc.) was the main influencer in our current seating arrangement and made us seat the way we do now. With smaller slates / tablets in your hand such a requirement will mean futile waste of space.
3. No projectors in the meetings:
Needless to say, henceforth you will not see any projectors in the meetings. All employees will have a tablet/netbook with their hand and using a projector would be meaningless instead we will see the screens shared and seen by all.
4. Social-official Network replacing mailing systems
By the time cloud gathers pace, the intervention of social medium into our workplace would be unavoidable. Thus the mode of mailing would get divided into two, there would be an officially social model of mailing (very similar to chat/ message in Facebook) and another mode for would be the traditional e-mailing service for confidential mails or mails with attachments.
5. Connectivity the key to success:
One difference to the way we work would be the connectivity. Unlike current scenario, there would be no way one would be able to work offline. Especially given the fact that all would be having netbook sort of devices which are uber mobile. This would lead the need of having greater connectivity.
6. Yippie no more backing up:
If you are paranoid about backing your system often, owing to your scare of losing data from your PC, then there is some good news. One advantage from the cloud computing is that there is no need to back up your system. The back-up would happen at the server level.
7. Content Delivery Network (CDN) heard of them before:
If you have not heard of the companies performing CDN activities like Akamai/ Azure/ Contendo/ CDnetworks, then brace yourself. In the age of cloud computing the CDN companies are going to play a major role. Typically CDN are those who provide access of the website to the last mile user. They make sure the contents are delivered to the users even for those who have thin server. This is normally used by companies for their external facing sites. But owing to cloud computing these will be used even for sites within the companies.
Conclusion:
The above points are just my impression on how the world / workplace would have changed when cloud is introduced. Not all might be practical. Keep your comments coming to help me vision the scenario better.
Drop a comment below or drop a mail to me @ ganesh.dg@gmail.com in case if you have anything to share.
Drop a comment below or drop a mail to me @ ganesh.dg@gmail.com in case if you have anything to share.
You have done a very good job of listing the many benefits of cloud computing and their impacts on the future workplace. One concern that I have regarding cloud-based computing is, as companies focus on their core competencies and rely more and more on cloud technology providers, what is the potential for a "shared" technology mistake by a common provider? Much like the exponential impact of a bug in a development tool, a security glitch in a cloud system will impact many customers for every incident of error. If companies delegate technology responsibility to providers, a single error could not only introduce risk to customer information (think Epsilon a few months back), but also risk the intellectual property of these very companies. I think that a joint responsibility will still remain no matter how ubiquitous the cloud becomes - sort of a two-factor approach to security in the cloud.
ReplyDeleteRob, firstly thanks for reading the blog and making a comment.
ReplyDeleteYou made a very valid point, in fact I deliberately stayed away from the security view point. As this is a huge topic by itself.
According to me, though what you mentioned is true I have two points.
1. Timely change: consider this, we all know how the security of internet was during the end 80s and early 90s. But now we all have confidence that its one of the secure channels of communication. Likewise, I believe Cloud will undergo a transition into being the most secure mode. Till then, only non confidential stuff will exist in cloud.
2. Cloud as a technology need not necessarily mean to be run by third party, there can be a situation where an MNC will have servers in one global location and serve for requirement of different countries. Thus it need not be a third party run service. The technology means taking the storage away from our workstations to a remote/ central location. This can as well be owned even by the central organization.
Think ur 2nd point is how it is going 2b for serious companies, or is going into that direction with tools like sharepoint.
ReplyDeleteKaas