Retail and Hospitality
Feature:
What is cloud computing
9 March 2011
The cloud. It’s probably the most important paradigm shift to occur in IT since the breakthrough of the client server in the 1980s, but how many people actually know what cloud computing is and what it does?
Speaking to an audience at the London School of Economics in the UK in October last year, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer described the cloud as an industry codeword for talking about using the Internet and smart devices in new and different ways.
“It reflects the transformation that’s going on in the computing world from things which are either in a corporate data set or in the Internet, to things that are in both; from things that are either in a PC or a phone to things that are in both; from things that may be isolated, like the TV, to things that can span literally your entire digital life,” he said.
For Microsoft, Windows Azure puts this concept into practice. Serving as the foundation for developing and running applications in the cloud, this platform lies at the heart of the company’s platform-as-a-service strategy.
In essence, the cloud presents a technology paradigm shift in the world of retail, giving a savvy retailer the methods and means to leapfrog the competition in becoming a market leader
Isa Qureshi, QLogitek Composed of Windows Azure and SQL Azure, and supported by development tools, management and services from Microsoft, the Windows Azure platform is built to be flexible and scalable, and give companies the ability to run the technologies they choose, when they need them.
Uptake of the platform has steadily grown since its general release at the beginning of 2010 and early implementations are already demonstrating the real value that can be had from moving to the cloud. One industry that certainly appears to be keen to take advantage of this new computing model is retail. In a recent Microsoft-commissioned survey of about 3,000 business decision-makers across the US, nearly half of the respondents (48 per cent) from the retail industry said that their companies have used cloud computing. One-third (32 per cent) said that their companies were ready to move all applications to cloud computing.
Proving particularly popular at the moment is the new cloud-based services package Office 365, previously known at the Microsoft BPOS suite, which features cloud-based versions of applications such as Exchange messaging, SharePoint collaboration and the new Lync communications server. Companies already using it include McDonalds, Home Depot and Starbucks.
Early successes such as this are a promising indicator of good things to come, but if Microsoft is to really succeed in its cloud initiative, its partners must also be on board to help push development and provide the necessary extra functionality and services to encourage customers to make the transition.
Isa Qureshi, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Canadian supply chain solutions provider QLogitek, believes the possibilities are endless when it comes to cloud computing: “In essence, the cloud presents a technology paradigm shift in the world of retail, giving a savvy retailer the methods and means to leapfrog the competition in becoming a market leader by implementing a faster, better, and cheaper method of consuming technology systems and infrastructure.
This is an extract of article that first appeared in the Spring 2011 edition of Speak. To read the full article, check out page 60 of the digital edition.
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