The End of Corporate Computing
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== The End Of Corporate Computing By: Nicholas G. Carr ==
Contents |
Comparison to Utility companies
In "The End of Corporate Computing", Nicholas G. Carr makes comparisons to the Utility companies. He states how the current business world has major corporations with their own massive IT departments in order to increasingly maintain an ever larger corporate network. Similar in many ways to the old companies that ran their own generators in order to get cheap reliable power to their factories. The old companies could not imagine a power grid in which the public or themselves could get cheap reliable power. But technology advanced and public utilities emerged. He compares this to today's corporations with large internal networks saying that eventual there would be a way to get computing as an outside service that is all inclusive bring us into the would of the "cloud".
One computing utility
Nicholas is saying that there could be a "Utility" company that could supply network connections,the computing power, the software licenses, and the interface for a monthly fee much like we get power. What he is saying that for a fee there could be a company that could supply the infrastructure and the power , and the terminals for a flat monthly fee easier that creating their own internal network. This would enable small companies to have the same computing power capability as major companies without having to invest in the initial deployment of the infrastructure. He is saying that in many ways the utility could have a central or many servers with the computing power with the clients on thin workstations having all the work done by the server and the data on the server, essential being in a cloud were all things are done not on the computer but on an off-site computer, "Cloud Computing".
The Pros and Cons
There are many pros and cons to this ideas one pro is that you could have unified interface and data set across multiple devices, but at the same time you have the problem of if there is a failure in a the utilities system it is not just a companies system down it is a entire counties if not state or nationwide failure. The other such con is when you are cut off from the "cloud" then you cannot access your data in many ways you are in a tight spot if your applications run in the "cloud" only.
In conclusion
In conclusion Nicholas is basically saying that the internal corporate IT department is dying and will eventual be replaced by a utility that handles all of the infrastructure and computing needs seperatly from a company. He is saying much like companies pay a monthly power bill for electricity, they will be able to pay a monthly bill for all of their computing needs without having to commit with a massive investment in the initial set up of such equipment or purchasing of license for the computers. All would be take care for them behind the scenes by the company all they would have to do was pay a monthly bill. Great for small business who cannot afford the investment in a computing system.
Bibliography
The end of Corporate Computing by: Nicholas G. Carr