If you read the computer trade press, you’d get the impression that cloud computing is the next killer app. “Not so,” says Dr. Jeanne W. Ross, principal researcher at MIT Sloan’s Center for Information Systems Research. Speaking at the recent MIT Sloan 2009 CIO Symposium, Ross said that “major companies have to clean up their infrastructure before they can take advantage of cloud computing.” She added that cloud computing makes sense for emerging companies that will need to scale in a hurry.
Ross should take a look at what’s happening at Brady Corporation, a $500 million manufacturer and marketer of a comprehensive line of identity and protection products, including labels, signs, safety devices, and printing systems. In a recent www.enterpriseleadership.org interview, Frank M. Jaehnert, Brady’s president and CEO, described some of his company’s key cloud computing investments.
We also came across an interesting cloud computing application at the Brain & Spine Institute at Sacred Heart Hospital in Wisconsin. Dr. Kamal Thapar, a neurosurgeon and the Institute’s director, is using the country’s first SmartOR, which is based on cloud computing technology.
For a good discussion about cloud computing, listen to our podcast with Dr. Kishore Swaminathan, chief scientist for Accenture. He defines cloud computing as the sourcing of some capability from somewhere out there, typically through the Internet, and you, as a user, neither know nor care where this capability is coming from. The four types of cloud computing include software clouds, such as software as a service; hardware clouds, such as data backup; desktop clouds, such as Google applications, and business process clouds, such as PayPal. Swaminathan said he isn't sure where cloud computing is going because of the unresolved issues in areas such as data security and performance.
Talk to us: Anyway, we would like to hear if you have plans to move your applications to cloud-based services? If not, why? Please send me links to any interesting cloud computing applications – enterpriseleadership@gmail.com.
Elizabeth Ferrarini – enterpriseleadership@gmail.com
