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Cloud computing: A democratizing force?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2013.05.010Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Cloud computing is a disruptive innovation.

  • The delivery of cloud computing through mobile devices will enhance its pervasiveness.

  • It has the potential to become a democratizing force and bridge the digital divide.

Abstract

There has never been a more disruptive innovation in the IT landscape such as cloud computing since the emergence of the Web in the early 1990s. This IT delivery service has the potential to change many aspects of organizations’ operations, thinking, culture, work and their ability to control global warming. With the increasing ubiquity and pervasiveness of mobile devices, cloud computing's impact could be even greater and much wider in its reach. But this emerging innovation has many hurdles to surmount to become the “telephone” or the “water” equivalent of the IT world. An examination of these issues will be made in this article and an exploration of the empowering and democratizing credentials of cloud computing will be attempted.

Introduction

Cloud computing is a model of delivering a range of IT services remotely through the Internet and/or a networked IT environment. When it emerged in 2007 it attracted a great deal of attention from many quarters (e.g., authors, consultants, technology analysts, companies). Many people (including industry analysts and leading figures in the IT world) dismissed it as a “fad” (Hasson, 2008, Johnson, 2008). With time, the model began to gain currency and many of the big players in the IT world threw their weight behind it. Concerned of being left behind (and the KODAK experience is still fresh in people's mind), many companies jumped on the cloud bandwagon. Many respected IT market research organizations predict great future growth for cloud computing services in the future. For example, Gartner (the global IT research and advisory company) anticipates a massive cloud computing explosion, fuelled largely by the economic turmoil of the last few years. In a report published in 2010, Gartner expected the global cloud services revenue to reach nearly US$150 billion by 2014. This level of spending, according to Gartner's Vice President, Ben Pring, is directly related to increased economic pressures which made organizations scrutinize every expenditure (Hickey, 2010).

The model of cloud computing relies on the delivery of mainly three types of services:

  • business-related computer programmes (Software as a Service – SaaS);

  • fast and almost unlimited processing capabilities, virtual machines (e.g., servers) and almost unlimited storage facilities (Infrastructure as a Service – IaaS);

  • development tools and hosting options for clients preferring to create and manage their own Web applications (Platform as a Service – PaaS).

Cloud computing services can be provided by cloud vendors through their data centres. These forms of service are known as “public clouds”. Subscribers to this service do not need to make any significant investments in hardware, software or staff and they can choose to pay for their services on a contract or pay-as-you go basis. Moreover, by using public clouds organizations can also make savings in terms of power consumption (e.g., less electricity to power and cool machines), producing less CO2 emissions, less space to house IT machinery, etc. Organizations can also choose to have their data centres (located in their own premises) configured with cloud software to serve their own needs. This is an example of “private clouds”. In this situation the organizations become their own “cloud service providers”. Organizations that choose to “do it themselves” are likely to be those that are very security-conscious. Large organizations and/or organizations in sensitive businesses (e.g., defence, intelligence) might opt for having their own private clouds. This kind of arrangement forgoes many of the benefits that public clouds can afford organizations (e.g., metered software use, less skilled labour, less space and electricity expenses). According to one analyst, a private cloud is not a true cloud service because it lacks the freedom from capital investment and the virtually unlimited flexibility of cloud computing (Reese, 2009). Other organizations might choose to have some aspects of their business served by a combination of both public and private clouds. This kind of arrangement is becoming known as a “hybrid cloud”.

Section snippets

Break with the past

One of the main features of the cloud computing model is that it represents a significant break with the past in terms of IT delivery. By using cloud computing (provided by public cloud vendors) organization can now concentrate on their core businesses and leave the IT aspect of their operations to experts (who might not be located on their own premises). Public clouds can offer scalability (i.e., use according to requirement) and obviate the need to make large investments in expensive hardware

Serious concerns

Despite the potential and attractive economic and flexible characteristics of cloud computing there are still many issues with this model that needs to be resolved. Issues relating to security, outages (i.e., temporary loss of service) and interoperability (i.e., portability or ability to change one's supplier) and are the most significant (Sultan, 2013). Security is no doubt one of the main concerns for organizations contemplating the adoption of this IT service model. A survey of more than

New market disruption

Cloud computing seems to have all the ingredients of a “new market” disruptive innovation if one is to employ the theory of disruptive innovation (developed by Christensen and his colleagues) as a point of reference (Christensen, Anthony, & Roth, 2004). According to this theory new market disruption occurs when an innovative product attracts customers who were prevented from acquiring similar products due to cost and/or complexity issues. Examples of such innovative products include Sony's

The cost implications: ROI or value?

No doubt, the cost structure of cloud computing will be attractive to many organizations. In fact, research suggests that many of the businesses that contemplate the adoption of cloud computing are attracted by the potential savings that they are likely to make. A survey conducted by the European Commission in 2011 showed that the adoption of cloud computing has enabled 80% of surveyed organizations to reduce costs by 10–20% (European Commission, 2012). A survey of 500 IT and business

Democratizing IT

The aforementioned concerns are genuine and real. However, there are efforts to address some of those problems emanating from different bodies, as indicated above. Interoperability is likely to be increasingly important as the number of cloud providers increase. The issue of security is, nevertheless, a controversial one. Many analysts believe that security is likely to be more robust in a cloud environment, given the massive resources of cloud providers, than one maintained in-house (Ashford,

Mobile cloud computing

Indeed, if there is any real future for a massive uptake of cloud computing in the developing world it is likely to be through mobile devices. And there is rationale for this suggestion. In 2011 worldwide shipments of smart phones were estimated at 487.7 million, overtaking client PCs (e.g., pads, netbooks, notebooks, desktops). This was a 63% increase on the 299.7 million smart phones shipped throughout 2010. The increase of the demand for smart phones was driven partly by their availability

Conclusion

Despite early misgivings about its future and commercial viability by analysts and software vendors cloud computing has forged ahead and managed to establish itself as an IT service model that can deliver both savings and value to its users. Most importantly, the model has many of the features of a disruptive innovation. It has enabled affordable and easy access to IT resources (both software and hardware) that traditionally required a great deal of expense, expertise and inconvenience and has

Dr. Nabil Ahmed Sultan is Head of Division of Business, Management and Enterprise at the Business School of University Campus Suffolk (Ipswich, UK). Prior to that he worked as Award Director of International MBA at the Business School of Liverpool Hope University (LHU). Nabil is an academic with a colourful professional career and research background. He spent his early working years in the Arab Gulf region and later headed a UK business. He also worked for the UNDP in Aden and New York before

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