The next article in our cloud mini-series takes a look at the cost motives for companies to move into the cloud. Clouded Judgement by William Fellows for CXO discusses, in a somewhat jargonny manner, how cloud computing can help a company “to cut costs and environmental impact”.

Fellows makes the point that a company with a rigid server structure may be paying for services it doesn’t need or struggling to keep up with demand. Putting some services in the cloud, however, means that storage and hosting can keep pace easily with growth or contraction. As he says:

“The private cloud is seen as a potentially cost-efficient implementation that many businesses can no longer afford to ignore.”

Fellows goes on to look at the various flavours and permutations of cloud and how they benefit business. He also looks at what prevents companies moving into the cloud, concluding that:

“Often reluctance to embrace cloud computing has little to do with technology. Snagging points revolve around issues of internal resistance to change.”

How true. Fellows says that the industry must rise to this challenge “to promote an atmosphere of wider acceptance”.

If you can wade through the jargon to the end of the article you’ll find many good points. It will be interesting to see if Fellows’ predictions come true.