Cloud Technology: The Great Enabler

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Daniel Burrus.

Most technologies aren’t really "tools," as many people call them. They’re "enablers." Let’s take the Internet, for example. The Internet doesn’t do anything by itself. It’s what’s connected to it – what you do with it – that makes it powerful. In that same way, the cloud is really an enabler. The cloud itself has no value. It’s what you do with the cloud that makes it valuable. As I like to say, "It’s not the tool that matters; it’s how you use it."

The cloud, which refers to companies using remote servers that store data and allow users to access information from anywhere, takes three different evolutionary forms. Most of us first started using a public cloud provided by companies such as Microsoft, Google, or Apple, where we stored documents remotely on their servers, or we used a cloud service like Flickr to store and share photos…

The private cloud soon followed when companies wanted to provide employees secure access to company files from any device anywhere. Since it’s private, the public does not have access and security is easier to enable. Midsize and large companies have been rapidly establishing private clouds for several years now…

Read more from the source @ http://www.business2community.com/cloud-computing/cloud-technology-great-enabler-0746087#PIZsqYAm3fJKQdKR.99