Head in the clouds: can cloud computing put you on cloud nine, or is it just floating by?

• Author: Birdwell, Steve
• Position: Cloudcomputing

Cloud computing is coming of age. It provides virtually unlimited computing resources in a variety of offerings and new business models as to how to leverage, package and access computing resources.

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In today's global business world, it's important for CPAs to get better connected with their clients by providing workspaces for sharing information; portals through content management and document management; access to news and updates in real time; better team collaboration on projects; and enhanced data security and workflow management. Cloud computing can help.

Cloud Computing: What is It?

Cloud computing is internet-accessible, on-demand computing resources. It is very much the opposite of most modern enterprise computing expense models, which pay for a set of computer resources based on peak needs with significant latency to increase the number of computer resources. Many enterprise resources stand idle as they wait for some peak interaction period. And if your demand estimates are wrong, you have unhappy users and accountants.

Cloud computing dramatically changes the cost profile from peak cost to average cost. It also changes the allocation cycle from weeks and months to minutes and seconds.

Confounding the dilemma, there are dozens of cloud offerings from various vendors. Each vendor's offerings are different, which reflects the embryonic nature of cloud computing: vendors experiment with service offerings, pricing and the like. You can also be assured that not all will survive.

Diving into the Cloud

A cloud is tough to nail down. The various cloud implementations offer quite a bit of variety. Considerations include resource types; access methods for cloud occupants (your applications) and cloud users; security; quality of service, cost and vendor lock-in.

First, let's see what the cloud has to offer.

Think about using cloud-provided infrastructure in contrast to the way you work. Unlike most traditional computing infrastructure systems that force you to estimate resources for the high side of the extreme case (forcing you to acquire, maintain and lifecycle for the peak case, which is often very far from the normative use case), cloud computing allows you to cost for the average, and experience recurring costs reflective of that norm. In this sense, cloud architectures are very similar to "just in time" supply chains.

Cloud computing is also fast becoming a type of internet operating system that controls a range...