12 Nov 2008

'No sign of turning back from the cloud'

Although firms face a multitude of evolving methods in cloud computing, there is little indication that the number of businesses adopting the technology will fall, an expert has suggested.

The aspects of cloud computing are yet to be defined and there are roughly four cloud models of business enterprise that have emerged, wrote industry expert Rene Bonvanie in a blog at ITWorld.

Microsoft and Google have adopted the traditional, ad-supported model, while the likes of Amazon and OpSource have incorporated cloud computing into their infrastructure and operations management, he noted.

Although the latter model is costly in the short-term, it offers long-term growth potential and a hybrid model has emerged which combines infrastructure with a software vendor approach, Mr Bonvanie said.

Software vendors lease computing power as needed and can control a businesses' overhead costs in a strategy that provides global coverage with a smaller investment.

On the road to a viable cloud computing business, Mr Bonvanie said: "More and more users are travelling it every day, to escape the constraints and perceived gouging of traditional license software."

Cloud computing will generate worldwide revenues of $25 billion (£16.4 billion) by 2012, according to industry analysts Gartner.