Great article on this inevitable future of IT. I think the cultural, security, latency, availability and backup issues will slow or prevent full adoption of cloud computing. It's more likely we'll see hybrid solutions that use both privately hosted network services and cloud computing (and/or SaaS/mashups).

I believe the biggest issues businesses have with cloud computing is data storage and backups. Will we see a reverse implementation of online backups where corporate data on the cloud servers is backed up to the company's private network storage servers?

As the article points out, there is still some reluctance to store corporate data outside of the private network. And although the use of online backup services seems to be gaining momentum, some companies still don't trust online backup providers to keep corporate data safe from security breeches.

In any event, companies will continue to need internal infrastructure and custom applications. The cloud computing model will not reduce the need for corporate IT infrastructure support staff and application architects. In fact, these staffing roles may become more complex to address the needs of both cloud computing and traditional computing models.

Harry Hiles
HBH Technology, LLC
www.hbhtech.com

Good article, thanks.

I think Cloud Computing is compelling. What CEO wants to run IT in-house? Very few I suspect due to high cost and low flexibility ("we need to build another data center to support your business goals").

Security is an issue. Part of the problem today is that the security isn't visible - organisations don't know what they are getting. What's missing is a security conversation between the Cloud providers and the IT security community. I recently started http://cloudsecurity.org to try and stimulate that conversation. I welcome anyone that wants to get involved.

Not only is it time to think about it but it's time to move! We've been providing Cloud Computing solutions for the last 8 years allowing small to mid-sized companies to outsource some or all of their IT functions. It continues to be a great success for both our customers and us. Low cost of entry, predictable pricing, and dramatic access to otherwise too expensive services.

It's not new, it's just getting more visibility! See some of our customers at www.ivdesk.com. It works and works very well! We're loving the dramatic increase in interest the main stream IT gurus are providing.