Cloud zone draws scrutiny in China

The city of Chongqing, China is constructing a cloud development zone which will offer uncensored Internet access. The catch – it will only be available to foreign businesses, not locals.

The plan has left some locals angry

The plan has left some locals angry. China is known for its Internet censorship techniques. The Chongqing Economic and Information Innovation Commission declined to comment for a story in Computer World.

“The Chinese government is marketing an uncensored, unfiltered Internet connection as a selling point, during they so blatantly and purposely deny that right to the vast majority of their citizens,” said Phelim Kine, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, in an interview with Computer World.

"Sixty-five percent answered yes to the prediction that the success of cloud computing will ensure its demise as a concept by 2015, meaning cloud has become a standard component of enterprise sourcing strategies; 24% said no," according to Network Computing, which reported on the conference.

While most CIOs agreed, at this stage, most programs moved to the cloud will nevertheless be those of the non-mission critical variety, by 2015 they see this changing. A majority believed by that time "anyway 30 [percent] of Fortune 1000 enterprises will deploy for the time being one business-critical system in the cloud."

The road for cloud computing

As for what’s coming down the road for cloud computing, 79 percent of survey respondents believed cloud service brokers "will emerge as powerful industry players by 2015."

According to IDC Technology, the use of cloud computing will as well free up IT staffs to focus more on technology within their companies in the coming years. IDC expects the amount of time CIOs currently spend on technology to double in five years.

Information innovation managers around the world are being asked their thoughts on cloud computing and whether the companies they work for should use it. As with any new(er) innovation, separating fact from fiction can be difficult.

First, he said the idea that security for data in a cloud isn’t as good as in-house security, doesn’t make sense. “Security is part of how these companies make money,” Hugos told Business Finance, to sum up they take it very in all seriousness.

Third, saving money is not the main reason companies should consider the cloud, he said. "The most compelling incentive to move to the cloud is to switch from a fixed-cost capital intensive business model to a variable cost pay-as-you-go operating expense model," Hugos said in Business Finance.

The Obama administration made cloud computing an integral part of its 25-point plan to reform federal IT. On Dec. 9, 2010 agencies were mandated to identify three projects that could move to the cloud within the at once 18 months. However, how can an agency chief information officer know if a move to the cloud will be more economical than in-house hosting of that service or program?

A group of three researchers from The Pennsylvania State University set out to answer that question in their paper, "To move or not to move – The economics of cloud computing."

Miller reports federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra sees financial systems and human resources systems as the straightway two big areas that could benefit from cloud computing. Kundra said the government currently runs more than 1,000 different financial and HR systems.

The Labor Department

The Labor Department and the Equal Employment Possibility Commission are two of the agencies that have already moved their financial management systems to the cloud. And the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently issued a sources sought notice to move its system to a new provider, and cloud computing is one option.

An interesting piece from CNET’s Marguerite Reardon today discussing the emergence of cloud and its effect on wireless networks and carriers. It’s no secret they are feeling the pain of keeping up with clients’ increasing demands to access more and more data on their smart phones, mp3 players, tablets, you name it.

"Using these services will no doubt eat up a lot more bandwidth than just downloading a song one time to your computer or smartphone," writes Reardon. "Once music moves to the cloud, you could be downloading that same song every time you sync your device or even every time you listen to it." And therein lies the problem – the wireless networks are having a tough time keeping up.

According to a report by Cisco Systems, Internet traffic on mobile devices in 2010 was three times all Internet traffic in 2000. Reardon cites a statistic from one mobile carrier that says by 2015 it "will handle as much wireless data in a month and a half as it did in all of 2010."

"The purpose of this request for information is to assist DOL in understanding the SaaS cloud computing solutions available in the market place with respect to email services, archiving and eDiscovery services, and collaboration services including the maturity and experience of vendors/system integrators in migrating and integrating multiple services to the cloud," the agency said in the RFI available on FedBizOpps.gov.

Agency like NSA

When asked whether an agency like NSA would ever consider using a public cloud, Anderson says, “For unclassified networks, the public cloud would be fine. The challenge for us is, clearly, that we do a lot of things in the classified world.”