A powerful cloud service like Google’s rumored GDrive could even “kill off the desktop computer” and ultimately “make PCs history,” according to a Guardian report published in January this year. The report told that Google was about to launch a service using which anyone could access their personal computer via any internet connection. The biggest fear of the search giant’s awaited cloud service is that “it would give the online behemoth unprecedented control over individuals' personal data.”

The concept of cloud computing is fast turning into a trend. But how actually will this revolutionary trend affect the global computing landscape? Let’s have a look at what might happen as a result of the cloud boom.

The End of PC

The basic concept of a PC is that it relies on a powerful hard drive which a cloud service makes redundant. With cloud, a user’s entire personal data and operating system are stored on the cloud service provider’s own servers and can be accessed through the internet using any device. Though cloud is still in its early stages, it’s a fast growing trend which in the coming years may potentially affect the way PCs work today.

Emergence of Serverless Companies

The idea of renting data storage is quite appealing to businesses that want to be rid of the hassle and expense of operating their own datacenters and worrying about backing up the data. Some prominent businesses including The New York Times and National Geographic have already jumped on Amazon’s cloud services for that matter. Many Amazon customers have never built their own data centers—they just use Amazon instead. "We call them serverless companies," says Adam Selipsky, a vice president at Amazon, in Seattle.

Bright Future for Data Centers

The continuous surge in cloud computing and the huge expected growth signals a very bright future for data centers. The services offered by a new crop of hosting providers, such as Amazon Web Services, are where the overall hosting market is going.

According to cnet.com news, Forrester identified a wide range of companies as "cloud providers," including Amazon.com, Akamai Technologies, Joyent, Rackspace's Mosso software, and Salesforce.com's Force.com development platform. The news said that Microsoft and Google are also rumored to be developing pay-per-drink computing services, such as hosted server processing and storage. As these providers are optimized for large-scale hosts, they could eventually serve corporate customers and a boost in data centers may follow.

Market Monopoly

Think a “Google” for the cloud instead of search. Who can say if it actually comes up with its rumored GDrive, Google will not exercise the market monopoly the way it does in search, and the way Microsoft does in software. There are already such big players as Sun, Microsoft, Amazon and Google, etc in the cloud industry and nobody seems to be talking about Power Laws. It’s an underlying fear that one day a single company may possibly emerge to dominate The Cloud to prevent which we may need a regulatory body.

Factors that Might Affect Cloud Attraction

IT Practitioners: The potential of cloud might take the power away from companies’ IT departments and have the ultimate impact on the jobs of IT practitioners. Uncertainties regarding processes around platform change management and dependencies might also spring from the cloud boom. The cloud will also raise concerns about security, integration and latency. Business Decision-Makers: Businesses tend to want potential benefits to outweigh potential risks by a significant margin. The very basic questions asked by firms include: Is Cloud really just a cost-cutting proposition or is there more business value there? Can Cloud help us make money as well as save it? A simple and direct answer to these questions would be that it’s still too early to say what ROI looks like for particular scenarios. Cloud also has regulatory compliance risk and legal uncertainties rear the decision-makers’ heads.

Other Possible Barriers

An article by Neil Ward-Dutton identifies the other possible ‘barriers’ that could stop people from joining the cloud revolution. “Barriers” at the forefront of people’s minds would be very different depending on whether an organization was looking at a tactical entry into cloud use, or making a strategic entry. The type of entry point will drive significantly different perspectives,” Neil says. Another potential barrier identified by Newsweek’s Daniel Lyons in his article is the concern about losing control over one’s own data and relinquishing it in favor of the cloud service provider. “Service providers won't admit this, but once they've got your data, they'll try to find ways to lock you in and keep you from switching to another provider. Ultimately, we users may have to make a trade-off—sacrificing some degree of freedom and control in exchange for convenience,” warns Lyons.

 

The Cloud Surge

Some analysts say cloud computing represents a sea change in the way computing is done in corporations. Merrill Lynch estimates that within the next five years, the annual global market for cloud computing will surge to $95 billion. In a May 2008 report, Merrill Lynch estimated that 12% of the worldwide software market would go to the cloud in that period. According to Forrester Research, cloud computing has evolved from being just a buzz word to becoming one of the most exciting concepts in developing IT today. With many vendors announcing new cloud offerings daily, Forrester has seen a quickly expanding number of client inquiries around cloud computing. Forrester says that this acceleration shows no signs of slowing, as the analysts fielded more than 264 client inquiries about cloud computing between January 2008 and April 1, 2009 from companies of all sizes and industries.

Are We Ready to Enter the Cloud?

All appear to agree that cloud is pretty much the future. Even Microsoft had the same point of view when it devoted much of its 2008 Annual Conference for Developers to a rollout of new cloud technologies and a pep talk about why customers should jump aboard. But on a practical note, “we’re not yet there,” wrote Daniel Lyons in his article. “Internet connections aren't fast enough, aren't reliable enough, and aren't available at all times in all places. And some early cloud-like services haven't been so great,” Lyons had told. Some thorny questions about cloud such as, who controls your data, how secure is you data and what control you have on your data, still remain unanswered making people more cautious about entering into the cloud.