“Fly 2 The Cloud Ready”

Cloud computing is one of the hottest topics in the IT industry today and it offers new business opportunities and a technological revolution.
According to the Topology Research Institute, the cloud computing service market will be worth 23.4 bln dollars in 2010 and 67 bln by 2013.
Cyprus should find ways to promote such businesses and to invest in cloud since Middle East countries will soon look for the best European locations to host and run their software services.
Cyprus in the near future will be an end-user of these services or maybe, in the best case, an application developer making software for export.
What we should do is to become a major hardware/software cloud solution provider.
In order to be able to do that, we need to increase our broadband environment and bring government, businesses and academia together.
The concept of cloud is very simple and very complex at the same time; it is about making different computers around the world cooperate together via the Internet. Cloud is giving computing resources on demand.
This is an extremely good idea, but the challenge is to make numerous core technologies and devices “fly 2 the cloud ready”, a slogan which might some day become a sticker on new devices, such as “HD ready” for TV.
At Powersoft we already invest in SAAS technology (Software As A Service) which is one of the major cloud service models and our Powersoft365 Accounting by Cyta is the first product of this family.
In the near future we will not be selling software but ‘renting’ this application over the cloud. (Infortunately I mentioned this five years ago in another article but in Cyprus we are still in the very early stage).
Many major desktop software vendors are already doing that. One of the most famous is Salesforce.com and soon Microsoft will advertise Office365 that will include Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. all in the cloud, no installation will be needed and no purchase of the license.
But what are the advantages and disadvantages for the consumer?
Disadvantages: I do not believe there are any, but if I had to mention any, then I would say that one is the security issue and another is speed.
But if you’re not working at NASA and not more than 200 programmers are trying to retrieve your data day and night, then your data is safe in a big player IAAS vendor (infrastructure as a service). A good example is Cyta, Amazon Web Service, Microsoft Azure, etc.
Cyta’s Powersoft’s 365 Cloud, is by far a safer cyber place than your own PC or server.
Speed could be a problem since it depends on your device and server but also on Cyprus’ crawling Internet speed.
A major disadvantage could be a ‘data hungry software’ that was not born for the cloud and could cause high charges on hosting per megabyte. Good cloud software should use only what is needed, since the payment usually is based on what you use.
The benefits are many:
a) The cost of investment in hardware is minimum (all you need is your tablet PC (iPad, mobile smartphone, PC and access to Internet).
b) The cost of the software is not going to be in the thousands and one annual maintenance agreement, but ‘x’ amount monthly. For example, Powersoft365 Accounting is 39euros plus VAT per month for three users.
c) No Office Limit … you have internet access you have Office.
d) Not happy with your software? The switch-over decision will be easier than ever.
Get ready to fly then and look for applications and devices with the sticker “FLY 2 CLOUD ready”.