Definitely seeing accelerated movement into the Cloud being reported in the news these days! Alongside the likes of Amazon and Sage, for example, Google have not been slow to propel their own engine of change, as it were, with repeated announcements that printing from Google is taking to the Cloud.

This month, CloudPrint has been launched in beta, aimed primarily at mobile documents, which essentially means anywhere or at any time, a document in Google Docs or an email in Gmail can be opened via a mobile browser, ‘Print’ clicked from the drop down menu, and ready to be collected immediately upon arrival.

Driving the realisation that Cloud’s time has come is a combination of converging factors. Faster and wider broadband, cross-platform web technologies enabling multiple access, transfer and storage of unlimited complex data, and the increasing reliance on web channels or virtual platforms as an application resource in order to facilitate a proactive IT requirement.

We have already seen relatively straightforward consumer web based services, from hosted and web email, to online transactions, tax preparation, photo and album creation and today’s linking social networking sites in the continuing development of successful SaaS business applications.

Printing via your mobile represents another tangible example of adaptation to a ‘thin client’ approach to cloud computing, as is readily available via DesktopLive, where a basic monitor screen access to web based software (SaaS) removes the need for physical storage of application drivers and the connecting of hardware to software via a cable.

The end of the physically located desktop has been much talked about in recent times as the smartphone/tablet revolution continues and indeed, the Cloud, as a location-independent communications network is now really becoming better understood across the wider business community. But it’s likely that the static desktop will continue to operate alongside mobile, but increasingly more reliant on cloud based applications as data/media processes accelerate and complexify.

Analysts have predicted that with the arrival of increased high-speed bandwidth, which makes it practical to locate infrastructure remotely, and reacting to the current difficult economic climate, over three quarters of IT managers are said to favour SaaS and will move from a capital expenditure to opt, instead, for outsourcing IT by purchasing 40 per cent of their IT infrastructure as a service.

Gartner forecast that within 2 years, 12 per cent of the global software market will consist of Internet-based forms of SaaS and cloud computing offered by cloud vendors accompanied by intrinsic IT support . In addition, Cloud computing will, by necessity, intensify and enhance frameworks of greater cooperation and collaboration among a geographically-dispersed workforce at multiple locations, including any number of related associates outside a company firewall.

The prevailing consumer adoption of personal forms of cloud computing is inevitably, driving business to migrate to the cloud with adoption rates doubling from 2004 to 2008, with around a fifth of SMEs and a quarter of medium-size companies currently using SaaS.

According to a Gartner 2009 study, “ .. .nearly 90 per cent of organisations surveyed expect to maintain or grow their usage of software as a service (SaaS), citing cost-effectiveness and ease/speed of deployment as primary reasons for adoption.”

News that the well-known Sage business software company has just launched a cloud-based SaaS accounting product for both individuals and small business – as part of an “emerging web strategy” – is yet another significant step in the shift away from software installed on physical computers and the growing acceptance of a cloud-based marketplace.

Secured using 128-bit encryption and available only in the UK, the Software as a Service, entitled ‘SageOne’, offers three different versions, the ‘Cashbook’ basic package and an ‘Accounts’ edition featuring invoice creation tools on a monthly rate and an ‘Accountant’ version, payable per annum or free to existing Sage accountants’ club members.

Over the last fifteen years, the continuous IT services development of cloud computing to industrialise data information storage and access as a resource, as exemplified by a thin client platform, such as DesktopLive, is a result of the ongoing standardisation of core technologies like virtualisation, service-oriented architecture (SOA), and Web 2.0.

Formerly, the underpinning of a business service was limited to IT resources, which were wholly owned by the provider of that service and ultimately, meant a silo-based-approach to the management of system, network security, and IT support. Cloud computing allows the business service architecture to cross the organisational boundary and become a composition of various attributes, which are separately managed within different domains.

The drive by business towards reducing cost and increasing availability, yet exercising agility in the face of unprecedented growth of data generation and processing has been inexorably leading towards recognition of the need to undergo a proactive IT approach to assimilating cloud as a dynamically scalable resource solution.

Yet despite the obvious attractions of the reduced costs of running and maintaining internal IT infrastructure, IT managers have been traditionally reluctant to relinquish control by outsourcing IT and company applications to a cloud service provider. Companies have even been hesitant to push mission critical applications and data, such as ERP and even email to an external enterprise over which they have much less control.

Notwithstanding, the deep anxiety over transitioning production environment, either in part or whole, to the cloud, a fear of becoming too dependent upon even large and stable cloud service providers has often proved to be a far greater barrier to adopting new technologies than technological feasibility.

Migration to a cloud, which is invisible to users, as a reliable and efficient process without sacrificing the governance, management, and security essentials that enterprises have grown to depend upon, must include:

• Capturing both the state and data for applications and servers
• Storage and retention of this information to enable recovery if necessary
• The actual movement of applications and servers, potentially in real time
• Recovery and reconstitution of state and data for applications and servers, to both physical and virtual environments

As the launch of SageOne demonstrates, the growing use of SaaS applications for both strategic and non-strategic business use, such as email, project and portfolio management, etc. provide ample proof of the gradual maturing of attitude towards off-premise data access.

Elastic IT may be broadly seen as the evolution of proactive IT within a Cloud computing infrastructure. The transformation of data management as applications become more dynamic and infrastructure virtualised, means multiple domains of operational control, through a relationship based pay-as-you-go, business service.

However, long abiding issues still focus on network security and compliance, performance and reliability and the concern over relinquishing control of sensitive company IT assets off physical premises. If the end goal is to reduce cost, increase business agility and flexibility, and manage risk, experienced cloud vendor management solutions can provide intrinsic IT support to both a company’s existing IT infrastructure and a cloud computing architecture, as the principles of governance, management, and security become vital imperatives.

Growing understanding of the unprecedented performance and economic power of external clouds is crystallising within IT manager and executive forward planner considerations as they endeavour to address the specific challenges. Constructing a cloud-like architecture – or ‘internal cloud’ – within an organisation’s own data centre can provide equivalent performance and scale of economy within an enterprise’s own operating environment.

This essentially means remodelling existing, diverse data centres to function as an internal cloud, the architecture of which, would not adversely impact existing assets and processes.

It may very well be that the key requirements for deploying an internal cloud architecture could include:

• Managing existing diverse computer, storage, and networking platforms (including
multiple revisions, updates, and patch levels per platform)
• Managing a variety of multiple virtualisation platforms
• Providing service oriented features (design, measure, and maintain a catalogue of services,
chargeback, etc)
• Not disrupting security processes and procedures, existing application architectures, and
existing application code bases or configurations
• Being compatible with existing configuration management processes
• Being compatible with existing tracking, logging, and compliance systems
• Providing per-use resource cost metrics and usage metrics

Under the above types of operating processes, an internal cloud could provide the same “elastic IT” capacity, economies-of-scale, failure-tolerance, and cost transparency comparable to an external cloud. However, a key difference is that the cloud is behind a company firewall, within it’s own facility, and under company management control. An instantly more attractive and persuasive proposition of all is the utilisation of existing resources and IT support for existing applications.

It is envisaged that the growth of multiple internal clouds arising around specific business functions will drive the necessity for a decisive IT services development solution to be managed across the internal domains of control. The adoption of an internal cloud model can be viewed as a company’s necessary first bold step towards intelligent use of an external cloud resource and establishing a hybrid cloud.

The recent news of Oracle preparing to take on Google and Microsoft in a possible, unfolding drama for global brand colonisation and domination of the Cloud provisioning space, may be viewed as another decisive step in the steady ingress of Cloud at the core of strategic, proactive IT development.

There is some evidence to show that senior business executives are increasingly acknowledging the gradual shift in thinking towards infrastructure issues inherent in rapidly expanding and faster handling, storage, access and transfer of increasingly sophisticated info/media data.

The sea change has already been recognised by SMEs and most predominantly, the manufacturing, retail, distribution and transport industries. Significantly, global communications provider, Interactive Intelligence Inc, report that 64 per cent of UK C- Level executives have either actually deployed or are considering the implementation of a Cloud-based solution within the next five years.

The incremental acceptance of cloud as a resource service suggests that last year’s prediction by technology analysts, Gartner that, “ 20 per cent of businesses will own no IT assets by 2012” may not be as far-fetched as some might claim.

Companies considering a move to a cloud platform may well be attracted by its inherent, hybrid characteristics. It’s extremely unlikely that companies will migrate their entire IT infrastructure and applications across to the cloud. However, where organisations already feel comfortable and perfectly used to outsourcing IT for non-core activities with a key benefit of superior IT support whilst maintaining business-sensitive IT applications in-house, a near identical principle of utilising a hybrid cloud approach may be readily accepted and the preferred option.

According to some business analysts, hybrid cloud adoption in the UK is predicted to be the inevitable choice as ‘onDemand’ technology moves forward in the coming decade. The hybrid cloud solution, where both a private and public cloud share IT hosting duties with selected IT outsourced to a non-cloud platform and the remaining staying on-premise and managed internally, will be control-dependent on individual company planning and resources.

For many organisations however, altering their understanding of computing principles by its direction towards the cloud, is still an issue. They will need to come to terms with the opening up of how IT can be delivered and managed, which ultimately provides an infinitely expanded choice of cost-effective service or platform options, which are customised and utilised according to their individual business model and changing resource requirements.

According to Gartner, leading US technology research and advisory consultancy, the global Software as a Service (SaaS) market is believed to have increased by 15.7 per cent from £5 billion to £5.9 billion during the course of 2010.

In addition, it is predicted that the worldwide SaaS revenue market will see a further growth of 16.2 per cent to £6.8 billion in 2011.

The figures suggest a widespread belief that the business world, from SME to larger enterprises, have reduced their early concerns expressed over network security, response time and outsourcing IT service availability issues as they have begun adopting SaaS with business and cloud computing models, like thin client, DesktopLive.

Moving into the second decade of the 21st century, Cloud computing is gravitating inevitably centre stage of a business data and information exchange environment far removed from late 20th century models. Technology has improved out of all recognition, with better connectivity, higher internet speeds and virtualisation technologies enabling more efficient use of servers.

It appears that there is now a real recognition of the growing need for sophisticated management and security, enabling business organisation to change how they think about IT to take advantage of the necessary agility, efficiency and scalability that cloud computing offers.

No longer viewed with the same levels of scepticism and suspicion at the conceptual margins of proactive IT test-development, cloud approaches, such as SaaS, are increasingly within the mainstream in that they are actively deployed to answer many expanding data-critical software needs.

Various different findings show that around 18 per cent of UK companies are now ‘considering’ cloud computing, between 17 – 32 per cent say they are ‘evaluating’ cloud, and 15 – 39 per cent already using cloud to ‘a certain degree’.

In 2011, cloud computing is a reality an IT manager will require to take on board as their role rapidly transforms to working within an IT support supply chain made up of internal and external services. As more businesses begin to focus on a blend of cloud computing investment with legacy hardware, they will naturally move away from inessential in-house IT ownership, adjusting their approach to purchasing cloud capacity suited to their individual business methods.

Inevitably, most studies reveal that just over a quarter of respondents see cost saving as the biggest motivation from the key business benefits identified of migrating to the cloud, with improved business operational efficiency at around 22 per cent.

Traditionally, deterrents to Cloud adoption have been issues of security, reliability scalability and management and internal resistance and, most often, the perception that public clouds are not suitable for some business applications.

The shift toward approaching IT is helping to align IT decision makers to use “cloud thinking,” and by more fully understanding it’s efficiency, flexibility and scalability, will help to accelerate its adoption.

2011 is already being highlighted as the year of the mobile and a dramatic shift towards mobile internet will also drive forward a move towards cloud computing, both of which will ultimately provide companies with the desired competitive edge.

If there’s one concern that has been regularly rearing it’s head over the years whenever Cloud computing is mentioned, it is the protection of sensitive company data physically stored off-premise. The natural anxieties expressed at a time when MS deskbound computing was the predominant operating system and most business data was stored on software physically installed in the CPU under your desk or locked in the room next to the stationery cupboard just sound a little out of step, these days.

As we head into 2011 and deeper into the age of mobile apps, iPad downloads, Near Field Technology, Google Goggles and augmented reality, it’s fairly evident that the concept of accessing a ‘cloud resource’ of stored remote data, as and when required, onDemand, or as a service on a static or more likely, a mobile platform ‘reader’ or indeed, ‘thin client’, is already here in all but name.

The reality is that the various forms of Cloud computing, which we are all used to using in the form of email, VPN, Flickr and Facebook, for example, actually provides SMEs more protection, IT support and potential network security benefits from the cloud vendor than their own, often limited or non-existent in-house resources and budgets.

On a daily basis, the centralisation of company data provides reduced data leakage as a result of lost, corrupted, crashed, faulty or stolen CPUs, laptops, disks, USBs, back up tapes and remote hard drives. As thin client technology, such as DesktopLive, becomes prevalent, small, temporary caches pose less risk than transporting ‘data buckets’ in the form of laptops and USB datasticks.

Centralisation
In addition, central storage is easier to monitor, control and implement disaster recovery prevention contingencies . For example, a Cloud server can be instantly cloned by ‘forensic’ software if compromised, eliminating or reducing any service downtime. Inevitably, increased competition and business consumer demand will mean that Cloud service vendors will constantly strive to optimise performance by developing ever more efficient security software.

Security Testing
Change control builds, pre-strengthened and ‘secure’, are also primarily a proactive IT benefit of virtualisation based Cloud computing. Reduced exposure within production environments through patching offline means it is easier to test impact of security changes by producing a copy of your production environment, implementing a security change and testing the impact at low cost, with minimal startup time.

Economies of Scale
Deployed within a ‘public cloud’ service and thus, sharing the same application as a service, means only paying a percentage of security testing costs of the Software as a Service (SaaS) provider. Similarly with Platform as a Service (PaaS), there are potential cost economies of scale, as with password strength testing times, which are decreased by restricting activities to dedicated non-production machines, preventing the mixing of sensitive credentials with other workloads.

When proactive IT jargon makes it to the status of the latest buzz words heard freely being circulated at meetings and presentations or appearing on the blogs of related industry sectors, then the implication is that the concept from which these terms have been abstracted is gaining currency by familiarity of use and gently promotes wider acceptance.

Certainly, ‘Software As A Service’ ( SaaS) appears to have been adopted as a handy description that references Cloud computing yet unfortunately, is causing a little confusion, as it is now being erroneously assumed that SaaS is a substitute term for Cloud computing.

With the recent announcement from Google that they are offering their own Cloud as a resource for application provision and media headlines promising superfast broadband is imminent across the UK, the era of Cloud seems to be on the brink. In real terms, of course, we have all been using cloud applications from the moment we sent or received our very first email, and are quite happily downloading mobile apps, watching catch-up TV, etc.

A significant development and a further sign of cloud acceptance – in the US at least – was the November announcement that Cloud computing would be the ‘default approach to IT’ for US government agencies, to take immediate effect. This follows hot on the heels of government reforms already set into motion one year earlier and which are intended to ‘close the IT gap’ between the public and private sectors. Implementing cloud is expected to cut costs, improve security and performance, and speed up deployment of new applications by a 40 per cent reduction in 2,000 plus data centre infrastructure.

As clearly demonstrated by the US policy for radical IT reform, Cloud computing is a term which refers to the ‘enormous scalability’ concept. Thus, Cloud should be understood as a process facilitating use of the internet to access technology-enabled services and applications that run on the web, from location-independent, multiple areas and onDemand rather than on your desktop. This may be readily exemplified by a DesktopLive thin-client set up.

While, it is certainly true that many SaaS applications may be defined by their huge scalability potential, they are still essentially, the software owned, delivered, and managed remotely by one or more Cloud providers. It may be described as basically, enabling the sharing of application processing and data access and storage resources on a pay-per-use or as a subscription service, according to user need.

The fast growth of data analytics allied to complex modelling and simulation now demands powerful and sophisticated, remotely operated computing power required by new generation software.  Inevitably, this means delivering a higher level of IT support, which can no longer be feasibly or economically supported by maintaining on premise hardware. Typically, this might be localised as an IT support Manchester or regionalised as IT support Midlands, etc.

Contrary to abiding anxieties over losing control over sensitive data, security is actually improved due to centralisation, increased security-focused resources and near impossibility of accessing audit logs, far superior to most company own network security systems.

Throughout 2010, reports have been surfacing, which strongly suggest that SMEs are very much in the frontline of Cloud computing take-up. Unencumbered by existing IT infrastructure compared with their more larger business counterparts, around a sixth of small to mid size companies have recognised the need for a proactive IT attitude which will help them accommodate and work flexibly with the rapidly expanding data/information environment.

In addition to the cost efficiency question, choosing the right Cloud service provider as an integral IT support partner is crucial and a number of key factors will need to be addressed to satisfy concerns over IT continuity applications, access and network security, and disaster recovery.

Key factors:

Applications: SME critical applications will be invariably, focused on word processing, spreadsheet analysis, and presentation tools. Prerequisites extend to email, image, video, small business and personal data storage, extending to Cloud SaaS for publishing, yearly tax-return software, POS (point of sale) systems, and small/medium business bookkeeping tools.

Encryption: A big issue is always secure protection of sensitive data. Encryption is imperative to prevent cloud-vendors or Internet providers (ISPs) from seeing private or personal data on the storage area network (SAN) or network attached storage (NAS) system.

Data Recovery: Another core concern is that no email, small business, tax return or personal data be compromised, corrupted, or lost in an exceptional circumstance. Whereas, SMEs tend to keep data on a DAS direct attached storage (DAS) drive or a small NAS drive which can be vulnerable to crash, Cloud vendor redundant architectures enables quick user and/or recovery of data.

Access:  Granular access controls are essential to restrict access to cloud data. Only the small/medium business or home office user should be able to access their own data stored in the Cloud so that corruption of one individual’s email or personal data will not impact anothers’ email or personal data.

Certification: Web-facing applications such as word processing, spreadsheets and tax data should be annually certified to ensure that vendor applications are protected from data phishing and all known cyber-attacks within the certificated period.

For most SMES, a cost-effective IT and future proof growth solution will be provided by a basic SaaS ( Software As A Service) as the simplest, most direct route to get into “cloud computing”. A DesktopLive thin-client approach offers an external or Public Cloud application maintained by an external cloud vendor and accessed through the Internet.

Facing a toughening economic climate for the foreseeable future, companies and organisations of all sizes and business sectors must focus more efficiently on client/customer needs, and in today’s ‘onDemand’ information access environment, become more transparent and accountable to flexible resource availability.

By the effective virtual linking of data systems and processes and taking a multi-service solution approach, information barriers can be overcome. Accurate, quality data and its attendant applications and resources can be accessed / archived and processed in the drive to deliver higher standards of business efficiency across dispersed geographical locations.

It has been estimated that only around a half of present IT support systems are able to provide key information required to make well-informed business decisions. Barriers to obtaining and leveraging critical business data include disconnected systems and processes for management decision-making, staffing/productivity, reporting and analytics.

Enterprises tend to rely on information provided by multiple IT systems and solutions where each area solves different, but related, business issues. Typically, they are not coordinated, and consequently, not achieving the full benefit of service solution integration.

Implementing proactive IT principles can focus on key areas of IT services continuity of systems and processes, IT services development and the need for process change, working within budgetary constraints.

Cloud computing, with low cost entry, as with a DesktopLive thin-client application, enables SMEs and similar sized organisations, to immediately achieve high-quality, unified and integrated data access provisioning on a ‘needs basis’ expenditure. Tangible ROI is realisable by the minimising or eliminating of the ongoing costs of traditional on-premise applications, such as software maintenance and upgrades.

This means businesses can tap into ‘clouds’ of resource and computing power, without necessity of operating or the complexities of managing a physically located cloud. Consequently, small and midsize organisations gain better redundancy and continuity than they presently obtain for internally managed applications.

Cloud-based applications are scalable to changing trading conditions, accommodating both company growth and consolidation. Freed from lengthy implementation projects and moribund legacy applications, Cloud is reliant only on localised cloud provision, e.g. IT support London or IT support Manchester.

The widespread increase in remote working from multiple workplace and human resource locations is driving a fast pace, work-anywhere mentality underscored by collaborative instincts and intolerance of both data/ information and budgetary barriers.

The shift towards the concept of Cloud began with the ready mass acceptance of hosted email, progressing to online shopping and banking – all without a physical database or application software on personal or workplace computers.

Today’s widespread rapid deployment of mobile apps brings the acquaintanceship with relinquishing control of data utility another step closer. Faster broadband, mobile devices, remote working and data growth signal that the computing concept is shifting away from the late 20th century on-premises IT model and the way we handle information. Cloud computing is essentially defined as ‘clouds’ of on-demand, computing power applications – which are both server and data centre – accessed over the internet at dispersed locations, typically a thin client, DesktopLive system.

Present computer network management is commonly a muddled mix of  inhouse with outsourcing IT. The latter, a reflexive policy to address unexpected or ongoing system problems rather than taking a fully monitored, proactive IT approach to pre-empt network security compromise or disaster recovery. Cloud computing opens up the vital IT support and maintenance cost question which currently prevents many budget conscious enterprises constrained by the imperatives of additional software license and hardware purchasing for new employees and new locations.

Key daily business activities such as document sharing and setting up temporary project working groups can be easier with cloud-based applications where before additional software tools would need to be purchased. Adopting a cloud computing concept brings the immediate benefits of low start-up costs plus low cost for irregular use, especially to the SME and medium sized organisation. In addition, some cloud-based business services, e.g. Google Apps, do not require to be purchased for one-off or infrequent computing.

Scalability allied to device and location independence allows for the differing ways a cloud can be accessed, e.g. desktop, smartphone and the expansion of the number of users and locations – at modest cost. The data protection issue is one hotly debated but essentially, in a cloud-based software environment, physical security is actually stronger because the loss of a client side system does not compromise data or software as would be the current scenario. A third-party Cloud supports high availability, continuity, disaster recovery, power consumption, and the ongoing technical and physical infrastructure management.