Why a Cloud Computing Magazine? Why Now?

Publisher's Outlook

Why a Cloud Computing Magazine? Why Now?

By Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC  |  January 01, 2012

This article originally appeared in the Jan. 2012 issue of Cloud Computing.

Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most important trends in tech along with virtualization, 4G/mobility and HTML5. Interestingly, they all grow in a symbiotic fashion. For example, the more powerful mobile devices become and the richer the media they can provide to users and the greater the growth of cloud-based services which feed these devices with information. Likewise, the greater the growth of cloud-based solutions, the greater the need for virtualized systems, which help deploy compute resources more effectively.

At this point, it is obvious the cloud is becoming a crucial part of the future of computing and to paraphrase Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com (News - Alert), even if many companies could afford the software alternative to cloud-based solutions, they may not be able to afford the hardware and operating system licenses that are associated with a customer premise software install.

Most of us know the benefits of cloud from an OPEX (News - Alert) versus CAPEX perspective but what is sometimes lost in the move to cloud is companies are also benefitting by being able to focus more on their core competency. Are we in the business of building data centers is a question more and more CXO titles are asking themselves and, except for a handful of markets, the answer is “no.” And by focusing on business instead of managing server farms and software licenses, companies are able to be more nimble – scaling their compute and bandwidth needs up and down as their business needs dictate.

The reason for a magazine on the topic is clear – there should be a crucial digest disseminating news, analysis and research which decision-makers need to stay up to date on cloud trends, happenings and benefits. TMC’s (News - Alert) Cloud Computing magazine is that resource.  

Of course, as more and more people turn to the web for news, you can expect our companion site cc-mag.com to be a great place to turn for instant information on cloud computing and moreover, the vast majority of you will receive the magazine as an emailed PDF allowing you to read it on your tablets, smartphones and PC screens.

Some of the future challenges and opportunities for cloud computing are availability/uptime, data sharing across clouds, standards, security, compliance, analytics and management. Expect TMC’s Cloud Computing magazine to cover all these topics and everything else IT decision-makers need to more effectively do their jobs.

I started my career by using the power of programming, which I learned on a Commodore 64 in the early 1980s to outsource my high school mailroom job and become a computer programmer and UNIX system administrator in the process. My obsession with computing really started with video games but it was the productivity associated with business computing which opened my eyes to the wonders of technology and how it can transform an organization.

Cloud is the next step in the computing transformation and has opened my eyes once again. Sure it’s not a new concept – it is really just a return in a way to centralized computing which was popular on mainframes and early UNIX systems. The difference though is we now have a single term today that encapsulates a massive computing shift where applications which used to have to live on servers in a local data center are being encapsulated through virtualization and multi-tenancy and relocated to remote, potentially redundant data centers.

The power of cloud is not just about what I have written so far, it has to do with its simplicity for the laymen to understand. Moreover the buzz around the term and popularized success stories directly translate into cloud-based solutions being more easily approved by CFOs.

In the 1980s and 1990s, many companies sold customer contact management software but once the term “CRM” became agreed upon in the mid-90s, the industry exploded with growth. Terms matter and trends matter – expect Cloud Computing magazine to be the one resource critical to cloud-computing purchasing decisions. We hope you subscribe today.




Edited by Stefania Viscusi
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