The advent and growing clamour for and popularity of cloud
computing represents perhaps the biggest change ever experienced in IT and
technology circles. Bigger than tablet technology, bigger than anything Apple
has ever done, a bigger change even, than perhaps the first ever Windows
operating system.
With change comes resistance, however once the resistance
has worn away then comes the real reason change is so great: the opportunity.
How is cloud computing revolutionising the industry both
from a consumer and business point of view?
PC Purchases
For the time being, manufacturers of personal computers are
still packing their hardware with as much hard disk space as possible, and
charging consumers ever-growing amounts of money for the privilege of an extra
gigabyte or four.
How much of that hard disk space ever actually gets used? In
most cases, the answer will be not all of it. In fact, the answer will likely
to be less than half. So why should consumers pay for something they don’t use?
Sooner or later, consumers will start saying no to high
prices for gigabyte after gigabyte of disk space, realising they can make
savings on buying a cheaper laptop and just using a free cloud service and
paying the small fee for any additional space they may need.
Job Opportunities
For the doom-mongers who believe humans are soon to rendered
useless, cloud computing is a disaster. It is yet another example of the world
finding a way to automate tasks that can be done quicker and more efficiently
than if a human was doing them.
While this is true to some extent, the opportunities
afforded by cloud computing are actually likely to make the reliance on IT
grow, thus creating jobs. The affordable nature of cloud computing also means
that start-up businesses can reduce their costs – funds that could go to
bringing additional employees on board.
This is just scratching the surface, too, as cloud
observation, security maintenance, and other human completed tasks will become
much more in demand.
Business Added Value
Opinion is split over whether this factor is a good thing or
not, but cloud computing will, eventually, force IT vendors to look at what
else they can offer in terms of products to the consumer world.
It is not only IT vendors that will need to evolve, either.
Retailers of entertainment products will begin to see interest in their stores
dwindle as eventually computer games move exclusively online. DVD sales are
suffering thanks to the likes of Netflix, much like CD sales dipped
dramatically when iTunes became so popular.
While these changes will mean increases profits for the businesses who
aren’t paying middleman fees, it leaves those reliant on interest in particular
products and services facing a challenging future.
Posterita, who helped me in this post, is a retail software that allows chain stores and single stores to manage every aspect of their operations via an easy-to-use web-based platform.
