Three Ways to Take Advantage of Cloud Computing Right Now

These days, even if you try really hard, it’s just about impossible to avoid “the cloud” in technology conversations. The internet giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have all launched cloud-based offerings, the US government has announced it’s intention to build federal cloud-based services for its agencies,  and leading technology research firm Gartner recently released their 2009  Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle Report with Cloud Computing perched atop the “peak of inflated expectations” – calling the buzz around the technology “deafening”.

But what is the cloud anyway, should you care about it, and are there practical ways that you can take advantage of  it right now? Here’s a quick primer on the key concepts, and some practical tips for where I think any business or organization can benefit from cloud services today.

What is Cloud Computing?

From a technology perspective, cloud computing isn’t necessarily new. It’s putting the power of lots of computers together and providing access to that ‘cluster’, or cloud, of computational power, storage, and business services over the internet as a utility. So instead of having to buy a server and some software up front, you can now plug-into the networked computers and business services that have been created and maintained by others and pay for the services on demand. So just like your electricity bill, with cloud computing you pay for what you use, and you can even turn them on and off instantly, when and where you need them.

There are handful of technologies that have converged over the past 15 years to make this a reality. RPath, a company that provides of software to help manage cloud-based applications, produced this handy “Cloud Computing in Plain English” video that does a good job of depicting The Cloud, what it is, and where it came from:

A few highlights:

• A collection of shared, internet accessible resources or infrastructure evolved from several “as a Service” infrastructure and software delivery models
• Can be tapped into on an as-needed basis (resources can be scaled up or down with little to no effort)
• Pay for the resources you use, and don’t pay for what you don’t use (utility type metered billing model)
• “Open” philosophy (open meaning access from any device anywhere at a higher level and API access at a lower level)

Three Ways to Use the Cloud Right Now

Now that you’ve been given the 101, what are the ways that you can take advantage of the cloud today? Despite it’s over-hyped nature,  there are several well established services out there that any business or organization large or small should consider in their technology planning today.

1. Save Money on Your Business Applications (especially email!)

It can cost alot to buy and operate the infrastructure required to run the essential software your business needs. How much time and money do you spend managing your email servers, customer databases, accounting software, and payroll system? They all need significant care and feeding. You can remove the technical operation costs of maintaining these tools from your balance sheet by using Software-as-a-Service systems that run on cloud-based (or cloud-like) infrastructures.

Of these systems, perhaps the easiest place to start is with email. A Forrester Research study released in January argues that cloud-based email services are cheaper than running email on-premise for all companies with less than 15,000 employees. Two great options to consider are Google’s Google Apps, and Yahoo!’s Zimbra.

2. Increase scalability with Managed Cloud Web Hosting Services

Getting inexpensive hosting for your web site or web service is pretty easy. But inexpensive hosting can quickly become very expensive if you get sudden bursts of traffic. Because cloud hosting lets you pay for what you need, when you need it, you can pay low monthly fees during business as usual times and still be covered if and when you get sudden bursts of lots of exposure.  So when you’re next twitter campaign catches fire and your web site lands on the front of the NYTimes and Digg.com, you’ll be covered.

I’ve helped several clients switch from shared and dedicated hosting to cloud-based offerings for this reason. Here are some of the cloud-based hosting providers that I would consider solid starting points – The Rackspace Cloud, and SoftLayer’s CloudLayer offering.

3. Reduce your storage & bandwidth costs with Cloud storage

If your organization relies on distributing large files, multimedia in particular, then chances are you can reduce your monthly infrastructure costs by using cloud-based storage instead of the server-based storage bundled with a traditional shared or dedicated web hosting setup. Cloud storage services, like cloud hosting services, are based on a pay-for-what-you-need-when-you-need-them model. For prices hovering around 15 cents per GB and below, there are savings available if your have large storage needs – or you are a startup with big storage needs down the road, but without the capital to procure your own infrastructure right now.

Amazon’s S3, Rackspace’s CloudFiles, and Softlayer’s CloudLayer Storage are solid, mature offerings and good places to begin your research.

These services can also help you improve the speeds that you deliver these file to users (everyone hates to wait for the video to start!), because most are paired with Content Distribution Networks (CDN’s), which means that your cloud-stored files will be served up by nodes in the cloud that are closest to the user requesting the file.

There are certainly other places that the cloud could potentially benefit your specific business, but these three areas should be considered by any IT department or web-technology focused business that wants to take advantage of perhaps the most-hyped emerging technology out there today.