Cloud Computing - commercial control
Friday, October 31, 2008 at 00:56 | From: Sanders Research Associates |
| By Railton Frith | |
| Oct/30/2008 | |
We have seen such seismic changes before when previously large corporations such as IBM or Honeywell dominated the computing marketplace only to be displaced by the advent of the microprocessor and the personal computer. Over 30 years the ubiquitous and rapidly evolving microprocessor overwhelmed all mini- and mainframe technology and largely replaced them with cheap personal computers for the masses. Mainframes survived in a niche market with the most intensive compute applications like the military, weather forecasting and banking. This trend toward personal computers continued, reminescent of America’s early days where there was freedom and opportunity for all. Gradually, America’s land was tamed, first into parcels and plots which later became communities and then interconnected with the railroads. So, too, have the opportunities for small organisations and interest groups to develop and sell software been curtailed, first by the pervasive operating systems like Windows and then latterly constrained by the internet that enforce restrictive licensing schemes from those market leaders of pc applications. |
Once again we find ourselves in the vanguard of yet another new era of computing. On this occasion, salvation is to fall upon us like manna from heaven in the form of compute clouds stretching far across the data centre sky. But, in truth, this much vaunted approach is far from a new idea having its foundations in those simpler times where a centralised mainframe was the only possible computing solution. As cloud computing becomes more common, the question arises whether individual’s privacy and freedom to compute will possibly be further eroded.
ICT 