As IT professionals there are very few of us who have not heard of SaaS (Software as a Service) or AaaS (Application as a Service) and now the ultimate acronym EaaS (Everything as a Service).  If you are an IT executive and haven’t heard of at least one of these terms you might want to reconsider your role in the realm of technology.  These cloud computing solutions are here now, and it appears that they are here to stay.

THE MARKET
Much discussion has taken place about the future of cloud computing, the types of applications that can be tweaked into outsourced or hosted solutions, or even the complete dismantling of the current technology environment by virtualizing everything.  HP, and other companies, are betting heavily on the future of cloud computing.  Over the past few years, HP has acquired more than 10 different software companies in an attempt to position them as the market leader in the EaaS market.  .
But what is the future of cloud computing?  Thinking long-term has never been a forte of large companies like HP or IBM.  They are positioning themselves to capture market share, not to expand the realm of cloud computing service offerings.   The true pioneers in the EaaS market space are smaller companies like Evolution CE (specialising in Open Source Cloud Computing) and researchers, who are taking cloud computing solutions to the next level.

THE FUTURE
The ability of software systems to intuitively predict user behavior, or assess corporate computing needs, is indeed the future of cloud computing.  Running applications or software across the internet, even across secure pipelines / VPN / SSL is being done and has been done for the past few years.  ADP (the world’s largest payroll solutions company) has had a cloud computing solution across VPN for at least three years and it is widely used.  But, the real future for cloud computing is the true virtualisation of scalable systems across geographical boundaries.  Intuitive in nature, such systems would be easily replicated, duplicated, or failed over by design.  This ‘cloud clustering’ concept is in the proof of concept stage in test facilities in the United States.

Not only would such systems be available as a human interface, but manufacturing systems could be operated globally. Via complex and intuitive intelligent computing, General Motors could simply allocate that 25,000 of a certain vehicle be built and the system would instantaneously calculate which factories around the world had the capacity and would then analyse cost data to determine the overall cost (including logistics) for distributing such vehicles from the various locations.  An incredible feat that is currently handled manually because the global computing systems do not exist which can control robotics, MRP systems, shop floor systems, etc… in a seamlessly integrated worldwide solution.

GLOBAL CLOUD COMPUTING
Think of a cloud environment as a single computing centre and then combine various virtual computing centres around the world where resources are drawn as needed – computing centre “A” is too busy so computing centre “B” is chosen as the next resource in line.  It is the ultimate in virtual load balancing.  Likewise, virtual storage centers can be set up as virtual ‘SANs’ across the globe.  Instead of load balancing one hundred servers in an operations centre, you end up load balancing one hundred cloud computing environments.  The end result: Everything as a Service, available around the globe, all of the time, with literally unlimited storage and computing power.  This creates a seamless interaction between end-user and application in which available resources can be allocated globally.

Such geographically disbursed environments have tremendous advantages.  For one, disaster recovery becomes moot.  Unless the entire planet is stricken by some malevolent force or a global catastrophe wipes out all life on the planet it would be virtually impossible to destroy the computing needs of a going concern.  And, if such events did occur there would be few of us left to really care about whether or not Tata Motors could still operate its robots.

IN THE PIPELINE
That sounds idealistic and even unrealistic, but when you think about it the technology nearly exists today to make such systems a reality – the right combination of innovation and investment could bridge the gap quickly.  There is only one problem that has yet to be solved, and it has been the bane of internet based technologies at every level – bandwidth.  The truth about cloud computing is that no matter what service you offer, nor how large the operations center, getting information to flow is based on bandwidth and it comes at a premium.

Need more storage capacity in your operations centre – go buy another NAS.  Need more processing power – go buy another server or upgrade.  However, you cannot just add another internet connection.   At some level you simply run out of pipe – the fibre is completely utilised, there is no more copper, and satellite bursting is very pricey.  It is an infrastructure issue that can only be solved by laying more fiber-optic cable, adding additional routing, and finding more efficient ways of streaming packets of data from point “A” to point “B”.

TWEAKING RULES
Archaic laws also need to be beaten into the dust.  Data storage laws that prohibit information from transcending national boundaries need to be re-examined.  The old way of thinking whereby “They that control the data, control the power” is outdated.  The true power comes not in owning the data, but in doing something with it.  Truly distributed and virtualised data architecture actually fosters the integrity, security, availability, and redundancy of data.

Under the pretense of protecting confidential information, governments around the world – yet again – fail to tackle the actual problems of securing data.  A hacker is little deterred by the fact that data sits in France instead of Thailand.  And, there is little evidence that shows any one country does a better job of securing data than any other country.

TRUE INNOVATION
Innovation in cloud computing cannot just stop at providing software to a customer; it has to expand into providing a service.  If we truly are reaching the point where there is an ‘Everything as a Service’ offering then we must expand what we mean by ‘Everything.’  Currently most companies like HP really mean almost everything as a service.  Virtualisation of existing client-server platforms is far from innovative and in this race - the cloud computing race - it will be the innovators with the best products on the most diverse platforms across the most dispersed area that ultimately succeed.