Self-Service With Cloud Computing

By Christine Selvaggio, Trendset

With all the recent emphasis being placed on the development of efficient, scalable technology resources, it's no wonder companies have been educating themselves on the "cloud" environment. In any industry, trends are cyclical; what was once a migration away from the centralized processing of the mainframe environment became independent personal computers at every work desk and a large network of servers. Now, we are moving toward the location-independent desktops with once again centralized computing. The advantages of cloud computing are numerous. ITaaS (IT as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service) technology enables users to utilize secure, self-service portals to access necessary applications and data, while reducing their dependency for sophisticated IT resources. However, cloud computing doesn't come without its critics, who argue that cloud computing has some risks when it comes to security and availability. If the cloud offering is designed properly and hosted in an enterprise data center, these risks can be mitigated.