Partially Cloudy

IT Next,

Even though analysts termed 2010 as the Year of the cloud, in reality only some organisations began to use cloud computing in earnest. This year, however, cloud has taken wings with SMEs taking the lead in cloud computing, specially public cloud. The larger enterprises, though, are still scouting the sky for the prefect cloud: public, private or hybrid…

…observes, “Currently it is the private cloud that has taken off, as the priority of CIOs is to drive efficient utilization of IT infrastructure through virtualisation. Since there are still some issues around the public cloud, it will be at least three years before it becomes widely accepted.”

All the Way to the Cloud
But IT heads vouch for the cloud. As Jawant Govande, General Manager (corporate IT), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, says, “Cloud is a very important part of our IT strategy. We are going for private cloud, to reap advantages of its ecosystem – cost optimizations, improved business efficiency, enhanced productivity, enhanced productivity, increased customer satisfaction and acquisition.”

Dinesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, IndiaMART.com, says, “Recently more than 4,000 of our employees, located across 75 officers across the country, started using Google Apps, as their primary messaging and collaboration suite. The cloud offers improved infrastructure and management than what is ordinarily possible with on-premise solutions, “he says.

Cloud Consultant, PK Mishra, says, “Industries that use a lot of distributed processing involving large volumes of data, are more likely to consider a cloud-based solution. Almost all industry verticals appear cautiously optimistic about the potential of the cloud, especially the private model.”

Kapil Mehrotra, IT Head Applications, iYogi, says, “We are on the cloud to ensure rapid deployment of IT infrastructure and applications. Two factors propelled us towards the cloud: faster response and better utilization of assets, and reduced costs.”

As reports indicate, SMBs (small and medium business) have taken to the public cloud in a big way. While large enterprises continue to watch this space and evaluate their options. For larger enterprises, the path to the cloud is not clear with regard to the model the works best for them-public, private or hybrid. Before we look at actual study details, let us look at the direction that the cloud is taking in 2011.

Private or Public?
Public cloud, also referred to as ‘external’ cloud incorporates the conventional meaning of cloud computing scalable, dynamically provisioned, often virtualize resources available over the internet from an offsite third-party provider, which divides up resources and bills its customers on a ‘utility’ basis.

Despite being a hit with the SMEs, report say that many enterprises feel public clouds are too restrictive with rigd infrastructures, incapable of being customized to meet their particular needs. And this brings private cloud technologies to the center stage which, they feel, should be the preferred option.

Daya Prakash, Head IT, LG Electronics India Ltd, agrees. He says that as a company policy, they have decided not to go for the public cloud model and have hosted some mission-critical applications such as supplier portal, service portland sell out management system on the private cloud.

Anand Ramakrishna, General Manager, Cloud Computing Services, wipro Infotech, however is of a different option. He says that the most popular cloud model is the one that is linked, in the core banking system, the ‘pre-account-per-month’ is the preferred cloud business model, since this provides the organization tremendous clarity on the IT spend per account of business they have.