Let's bring this full circle from Part I and II. With regards to the future viabilty of cloud computing .... there are questions to be answered and there are issues to be considered. But there also advantages and opportunities too. You need to understand the whole picture to draw an informed conclusion.

Repeating the questions from Part I:

* With so many companies rushing to announce their development in cloud computing /SaaS/PaaS in 2009, is cloud computing really economically viable in the long-term?

* Will large enterprises and Small and medium businesses actually go in for cloud computing and virtualization?

* What will be the benefits and problems associated with the same?

* Which industries are more likely to be the front-runners in cloud implementation?

I believe as more companies continue to develop and push lots of money into cloud computing technologies .... we will see both large and small businesses sign on. As the supply increases, smaller companies can take advantage as the costs will decrease. For larger companies, they will see other benefits of this such as disaster recovery, uptime requirements, and quicker delivery to worldwide customers.

When looking at the benefits and risks of this technology I think it largely depends on whether the cloud is public or private. Private clouds offer lower risk for companies but at higher cost due to the entity footing the entire bill for the technology, while public clouds such as Amazon offer lower costs but more risks due to private information being saved on public systems. The benefits of both are similar, if done right. Companies will be able to take advantage of better uptime, reduction of downtime due to failures, and improved availability to customers.

Any industry that pushes information to mass communities spread around the world will be the front-runners. These would mostly be media companies such as news outlets, with their main focus of getting information out to the customer the fastest. In an example of the news, the company who can spread a story the fastest will get more readers. So using this technology to get the story to the customers around the world the fastest will have more readers and benefit from cloud computing.

The advantages of this new model are clear and massive. The customer still has full control of their services via various web admin portals, but they now don't need to buy the hardware outright, house it in a rack, pay for the power, the air cooling, the upgrades, the maintenance, the expensive engineers to support them, the replacement of hardware, the list goes on.... They get to pay for what they want, when they need it. Just like water from a tap, or electricity from the socket.

Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications....including Business-VoIP-Solution.com. Michael also authors Broadband Nation where you're always welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, insights, and ramblings for the masses.

Cloud computing deals any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities. Cloud computing technology provides on-the-fly, point-and-click customization and report propagation for business users, so IT doesn't spend half its time making minor changes and running reports.

Cloud computing technology is tripping a huge change in application development circles. As a metaphor for the Cyberspaces, "the cloud" is a everyday cliche, but when combined with "computing," the meaning gets large and furrier. Today, for the most part, IT must jade into cloud-based services individually, but cloud figuring aggregators and integrators are already emerging. One potential security implication of cloud computing is that if you have individual data in that cloud, you are sharing hardware/networks with potential competitors in rather close propinquity, which is why for some folks building "clouds" they look to be for the most part just virtualization-heavy internal deployments. Cloud-based tools can be up and working in a few days, which is silent of with sanctioned business software.

Increasingly, IT squads are turning to cloud computation technology to minimize the time spent on lower-value natural actions and allow IT to focus on essential activities with greater impact on the business.

The cloud computing infrastructure not only provides deep customization and application configuration, it preserves all those customizations even during upgrades. By their very nature, cloud figuring technology is much better and quicker to incorporate with your other enterprise applications (both sanctioned software package and cloud computation infrastructure-based), whether third-party or homegrown.

By eliminating the problems of traditional application development, cloud computing technology releases you to focus on developing business applications that deliver true value to your business (or your customers).

Aditya is a tech fan boy who puts a keen watch over the tech world and brings latest new from around the tech world. He is the editor and blogger of TechRavings ( http://techravings.info/ ), a tech blog focused to bring tricks and tips from web, computers and social media spheres.

The term cloud computing technology is one that gets mentioned a lot in today's business world but is it a technology that is suited to your business and one that you should employ? Cloud computing can be hard to quantify if you are new to the concept and it can be a struggle to get your head around what the term really means. In basic terms cloud computing means that all your computer power is managed through an imaginary space called "the cloud" and that all users within a company have access to this cloud. Through "the cloud" users will be able to access the company's software, applications and data at a shared location. What this means is that a company no longer requires physical storage as the cloud ensures that multiple users can access what they require in a secure open environment.

There are many reasons why companies should look to cloud computing technology and five main reasons which illustrate why you should be considering the technology are as follows.

Firstly, there is the cost saving potential of the technology. Employing cloud computing technology will ensure that computer hardware costs are reduced within an organisation. The more software, applications and data used within a company mean more resources being used. By using a cloud platform you can achieve better economies of scale as you can access a cloud provider's infrastructure which has already been developed for such economies. Also it is like a utility as you only pay for what you use, therefore your company no longer has to buy physical IT assets and make large capital investments.

Secondly, cloud computing gives your company flexibility as it allows your data to be accessed from anywhere and through different devices such as a mobile phone. This allows your company to be flexible as employees can connect to the cloud from anywhere and have access to the same features as if they were in the office.

Thirdly, cloud technology ensures that you have a central and reactive infrastructure. It ensures that data is located in a centralised location ensuring an impressive up-time level that with physical onsite technology is hard to achieve.

Fourthly, the security of the technology is renowned for being of a better standard than the network security measures that companies would have employed in the past. If your company depends on the security of your data and applications then cloud computing will ensure reliability.

Finally, by employing the right cloud computing technology and the right provider management becomes easy for your company. Cloud hosting providers will ensure there is no down-time (many through rigid and competitive SLA's to give your company peace of mind) and ensure that your physical data is organised and secure.

As you can see employing this technology has many advantages. The main advantages are the cost savings, the security and the ability to put the management of the cloud into a providers hands to manage and ensure up-time and standardisation for your company. It is little wonder that companies are harnessing the power of cloud computing and it is only a matter of time before this technology becomes common practice.

If you are interested in cloud computing the next step will be to talk to some experts to ensure that your company is suitable to move to a cloud-based environment. It will be understandable that you will have lots of questions and will want to speak to a company with renowned industry knowledge. The Cloud Computing Centre is a company that can help as they have helped hundreds of companies move into the cloud and can provide you with a fully functional environment to evaluate and check that moving to the cloud is for you.

Business application software has always been known to provide critical data whenever you need it. This is why it is so popular, particularly among large businesses, because it is able to help the managers run the business smoothly. From accounting and inventory systems, relational database management systems, sales projections to enterprise resource planning, these business applications have always proved their worth in day to day operations. This is why most large businesses attribute a huge part of their success to their IT infrastructure running the different business application software.

What about the small and medium sized businesses who do not have enough funds to invest in this kind of infrastructure? Well, some of them just rely on their small scale network with a host of freebie software, maybe one or two software applications that they bought off some computer store which they found out later is different from what they are used to. However, most of them just shake their heads in resignation, looking at the stars and wishing for something to take them out of this mess.

If you are one of these small or medium sized business owners, you may want to stop looking at the sky otherwise you would be counting neck pains as one of your present problems. It might be a good idea instead to look up some information about cloud computing because this reinvented technology may just provide the answers to your pressing business application software needs.

Cloud computing makes a plethora of the best business application software available, delivered as web based applications, to small and medium sized businesses like the one you have at a very low monthly subscription cost. There are a lot of cloud computing providers that offer software as a service to businesses who do not have adequate resources to invest in a really good IT infrastructure.

These providers maintain state of the art network servers, workstations, fast and reliable network connection, redundant backup systems, stable power source with uninterruptible power systems, and the best part of all these is that they have a team of experts, gurus, and geeks, working around the clock to provide your business excellent continuous service.

So who can benefit from cloud computing technology? You and millions of other owners of small or medium sized businesses who always wanted to have these state of the art business applications. You will no longer be browbeaten by large companies who maintain their own data centers because you now have the opportunity to access an even larger data center for your business application software needs.

Suzie has been writing articles on interesting topics including relationships and technology. Her new interests are in cork boards such as framed cork board and cork board sheets.