The SpiderGroup Blog

What is the ‘Cloud’?

Cloud computing is a recently coined but popular term for the delivery of information and services to one’s computer, over the internet (or ‘cloud’). Why ‘cloud’? Well, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of reviewing network diagrams you’d know that the internet is generally depicted by a cloud. My guess is that the Internet has become such a vast, unfathomable network of information and services that no one can really explain it – so we just call it ‘the cloud’ and take for granted all the really clever, interesting and weird stuff that happens in there.

Personally I’m not sure that l like the term, I run a business and the image of my information floating around in some vast cloud makes me a little uneasy, fortunately I know better and if it’s the term that’s going to stick then I need to join the party. Whether it will stick is another matter, the most recent fad was calling it web 2.0 and the slightly less catchy software as a service (or SaaS), not to mention on demand services and application service provision (ASP). But all these terms essentially refer to same thing; the delivery of services and information over the internet to billions of consumers and millions of businesses all over the world.

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It has been confirmed, the UK is heading into a recession and you just need to listen to Mervyn King’s gloomy forecast at the end of last month to realise that times are going to get tight for small businesses in all sectors as we move into 2009. BBC Website - The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King: 22nd Oct 2008

But does this mean that UK businesses should button down the hatches and ride out the storm which, according to some predictions, could last well into 2010? Or is there some opportunity to be gained by owners of small businesses who are prepared to think on their feet and react quickly to minimise their expenditure and explore new market opportunities that may be hidden in this global economic slowdown?
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Google Aps is simply not an enterprise level suite of applications yet. (It may well get there but isnt even close yet)

Firstly it is still in Beta testing mode - this means you have no service level agreement with Google. They can take the whole system down without warning, meaning guess what…..none of your staff can work! They also state in the terms and conditions when you signup that they cannot guarantee the safety of your data and are free to use your data for marketing purposes if they please. Brilliant!

Once you are in, you’re locked in - People for years have complained that they are locked into Microsoft’s software stack. Well if you start using Google Apps you’re now in a similar situation! Any smart company should put in place a plan for the future. What if you come to realise you didn’t want to host your application on the Google App Engine anymore? Good luck, almost everything you are given access to is proprietary — that means all your data is locked into a format that isn’t like a traditional relational database. This could turn into a disaster for your business if you rely on a custom built app. (more…)