What is 'The Cloud'?
It is simply using the same tools and applications you use every
day, but doing that via the internet (or 'in the cloud'), rather than
via the networked hardware sitting in your office.
When talking about operating in the cloud, most companies are
concerned with security and the service levels. Microsoft has
invested heavily to ensure that their datacenters and communications
are secure. Microsoft also have a financially backed Service
Level Agreement, with a guaranteed availability of 99.9%.
There are different types of cloud deployment, public, community
and private.
- The public cloud is using third party datacenters to hold your
data and software off-site. This has the maximum operational
expenditure savings.
- A community cloud is where a number of companies with similar
requirements share their resources, including infrastructure.
The operational expenditure of all the companies in the community
cloud are reduced.
- A private cloud is delivering cloud computing on a private
network. This will have very little impact on operational
expenditure, as the hardware development and maintenance costs are
retained by the company.
The IDC questioned their enterprise panel on the challenges of
cloud computing in August 2008. The graph below represents their
answers.
Obviously, since then there have been significant improvements to
the cloud infrastructure, not least the introduction of worldwide
datacenters by Microsoft, and a genuine commitment to provide software
for the cloud. To see more detail on the Microsoft software
available in the cloud, go to our page 'Microsoft
In the Cloud'.
For more information contact F1 via the
Information Request form or call
us on +44 (0)1225 336096.