When I was a graduate student, each time I created a diagram of network infrastructure, I represented the internet as a cloud. We still do it today, but the cloud now represents something more than the internet. We do not know what is inside it and, to be honest, we do not care.
Why would we want to know how the internet ticks? Does anybody really want to know how many Cisco routers there are? How many thousands of kilometers of Systimax cables and patches are used? How many Sun Microsystems’ servers, IBM systems or Hitachi storage boxes there are?
While we no longer care about the cloud and how its components work, its functions are important to us. It is not just the Internet, it is an evolving universe of services that companies of various sizes can use, much like taxi cabs that we use to go from A to B.
The cloud-computing idea is certainly not a new one. Many years ago, Toto Sugiri from Sigma Cipta Caraka, one of the most admirable IT companies on my list, told me how small banks no longer had to build their own IT systems. Instead, they could sign a contract with Sigma, and it would handle the rest.
Banks only had to pay Sigma a certain amount for each transaction. Data protection and security was guaranteed, it had backup systems, a disaster recovery center and other facilities required by the central bank.
That was then. Today, public Internet infrastructure is much better, bandwidth has become much cheaper. So, why not use the software owned by a provider as a service (SaaS)? Or its infrastructure (IaaS)? Or even host in-house developed applications on the provider’s platform (PaaS)?
The promised benefits are multiple. There is no need to invest in hardware and software. Because IT has now become a utility, capital expenditure changes to operational expenditure, and there is no issue of asset depreciation.
Maintenance is no longer a concern, while uptime is guaranteed up to 99 percent. We can use a service at any time and stop it when we no longer need it, an approach called “on demand”. We pay the service providers more as we grow, and less when business is slow.
So, for example, if you are a business with many employees, why do you have to invest in a payroll system? Why not just let another company make an investment in the system and you share the cost with a number of other businesses?
You do not have to worry about security, privacy and service availability, because you and the application service provider sign a contract that specifies the guarantees. The contract is called service level agreement, or SLA.
The variety of software available to share grows. The choice has become uncountable and is now referred to collectively as the cloud. Thus, the term cloud computing was born.
However, as usual, the term can mean different things to people. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a definition that is fairly comprehensive.
According to the agency, “cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources [networks, servers, storage, applications, and services] that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management efforts or service provider interaction.” You can find the definition at www.srs.nist.gov.
So, the beauty of the idea is classic: It enables business owners to concentrate on their business and customers. They can leave your IT to the experts (no pun intended for the current Jakarta governor).
What SaaS can be consumed from the cloud. As usual, it is limited only by our creativity. It can range from email service, remote collaboration, unified communication, payroll, bookkeeping, sales-force automation and so on.
The way the ASPs charge their clients can also vary. For example, they may take a certain percentage of the transacted amount. The greater the amount, the more the charge is.
Of course, not all applications can be entrusted to a third party, for example, critical business data. Or you may require a speed and performance level that cannot be provided by the cloud.
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced the availability of cloud computing for business users in Indonesia. The software giant works with its partners Astra Graphia IT (AGIT), Infinys System Indonesia and IndoPacific (Green View). The services are called Microsoft Partner Hosted Online Services.
These companies have their own specialization. AGIT offers Enterprise Messaging and Collaboration with two main services, namely, Microsoft Exchange Hosting and Microsoft Unified Communication. PT Infinys System Indonesia offers Internet services, system integrators, bar coding, smart card distribution and solution, in-building cellular and web and application development services.
The third partner, IndoPacific (Green View) offers data center facilities, Internet broadband, Virtual Private Network (VPN), Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity.
Microsoft is certainly not the first to join cloud computing. It has even set up a research group for cloud-computing futures.
Meanwhile, other IT providers have been offering their services from the cloud. Microsoft’s strength perhaps lies in that it also has complete resources, including desktop operating systems and office productivity tools.
Then again, there is nothing new in the basic tenets of cloud computing. The challenge is to prove to the IT market that this service model really works.
