Cloud computing is just about a decade old. Despite its being a relatively new entrant to the world of computer networking, its impact across disciplines and the evolution it has had are tremendous.
We often look at whole organizations that have helped revolutionize and embrace new technology, but it is equally important to look at specific individuals who were behind the scenes and the early adopters who together helped the technology reach unprecedented heights. Along these lines, cloud computing’s pioneers are not just the masterminds at Amazon and Google but also people from companies like Salesforce, who gave needed facelifts to varied manifestations such as software as a service and infrastructure as a service.
Although mobile computing also had a terrific growth, its provider landscape is still monopolistic to a large extent. Android has given iOS a stiff run for its money, but we really do not have a strong third contender yet in the mobile operating system world.
Fortunately the scenario is slightly different for the cloud computing world. Although Amazon had quite a bit of a lead early on, a lot of competition—from commercial players such as Google and Microsoft as well as open source contenders—has make a strong yet healthy competitive market.
Satya Nadella recently made one of his first public appearances since assuming the role as Microsoft’s CEO; he emphasized Microsoft’s commitment and investment in the world of cloud computing, including tightly coupling it with mobile computing in the coming days.
For its part, Amazon continues to be in the spotlight for cloud computing news items, whether for its price reduction for its cloud offerings (apparently for the forty-second time since 2006) or its certification from the U.S. Department of Defense for its secure cloud, making it easier for new government organizations to be onboarded to Amazon Web Services.
The positive result is Amazon’s focus on its cloud computing products’ performance and availability. For instance, if AWS goes down even for a few minutes, it immediately gains global visibility and engineers work around the clock to restore instances right away.
So, the service level agreements Amazon is bound by—along with tight competition from other players—continue to create a very healthy landscape for cloud computing offerings. This benefits end users, who now have multiple credible choices to pick from when they decide which service provider to go with.
The future of open source cloud computing continues to be bright. Google even suggests its cloud computing business will become even larger than its online advertising revenue in the coming years.
As the cloud grows by leaps and bounds, the healthy competition it faces is definitely an advantage for end users. Cloud computing will continue to have its roots well-grounded, creating a win-win situation for all entities involved.
