Recently My Broadband met with Danie Steyn, Business Development Manager at Intel, South Africa to discuss the phenomenon of cloud computing and how he feels it will affect local business in the coming years.<\/p>\n
Steyn explained that cloud computing is simply a term that has been used to re-label many existing applications within the market, and added that it was “ a big hype in 2008”. According to Intel cloud computing isn’t currently a full end to end solution. Instead, Steyn explained, business should focus on “balanced computing” in the future.<\/p>\n
Cloud computing is a system whereby computers access information based on a distant server which allows the device to use smaller and more efficient chips that use less energy. The ultimate goal of cloud computing is to base any applications a computer may use on a remote server which will allow it to run with very little or even no software installed on the computer itself.<\/p>\n
Balanced computing, according to Intel, is a way of thinking about how to achieve a measure of cloud computing that suits a specific situation and then equipping the business with the correct hardware and resources to achieve this.<\/p>\n
Steyn explained that many businesses still do not understand the total costs of implementing a full streaming solution within their data centres. Small businesses would benefit from application streaming but would find full operating system streaming far too costly. Instead, according to Steyn, it is imperative that businesses find a good mixture of which applications should be sourced internally and what should be sourced via the cloud.<\/p>\n
Steyn explained that although there is a significantly higher cost attached to providing the same computing power as a normal desktop in terms of streaming over the cloud, new developments such as the Xeon 5500 processor would lower costs in terms of space, power and cooling. For many companies, Steyn said, there “might be a lower cost involved to transfer over the cloud”.<\/p>\n
When asked about how cloud computing would function in South Africa with current broadband speeds, Steyn answered that “there is a direct correlation between broadband and PC penetration into households and growth in GDP”, “with submarine cables coming in it will allow more cost effective solutions”. Steyn also added that services such as “3G cannot deliver quality of service” when it comes to reliable streaming.<\/p>\n
In conclusion Steyn explained that the more telecommunications companies that begin to deliver solutions with guaranteed speed the greater the adoption will be in terms of cloud computing or “balanced computing” as Intel refers to it.<\/p>\n