Cloud computing - Will it really blossom?

There is so much talk these days in the IT field about cloud computing, SaaS (Software-as-Service), will it really blossom and change the way of IT operation in the future?

Today, I read an article in THE HINDU, I liked the way of presentation as it was quite simple in explaining the concept behind cloud computing.



Click here to read THE HINDU article on cloud computing

However, cloud computing will not be without challenges and I also not too sure how cost effective it would be for the following reasons.

i) Most of the business, whether SME or big has quite a large customization of application to suit their business needs. Hence, if a company needs these customization to be in tact when moving to cloud computing, they would have to pay a price for it.

ii) The Hardware cost of servers required for hosting various applications, database may not be that much highly priced when compared to the application maintenance cost in the long run. Hence, customer has to perform cost vs benifit analysis of opting for cloud computing or to have server located within its boundary.

iii) Some of the countries legal frame work does not allow a companies legal transaction data to reside some where outside a country.

iv) Trust on the service provider to have your application up and running at all critical point of time. You definetely need to have an SLA with the service provider.

Further, On-Demand services is nothing new, as some of the leading IT companies are already providing it. As for as Saas(Software as a service) goes, I feel it might be cost effective when business start using the standard product with minimum customization or SaaS service provider has to have its product built with easier option to customize the same with minimum effort. In any case, I still believe it to be early days and it might take few year to really mature out.

I welcome reader's thoughts and feedback.