Sustainable Cloud Computing

Excerpt

Cloud Computing is today’s most promising technology due to its cost-efficiency, flexibility, and lastly its vision of unlimited and unrestricted access to computing for everybody. It is this expectation of an easy to use and affordable world of services that has already given Cloud so much attention. For instance, smart-phones give access to the Cloud and have replaced traditional mobile phones. While private users are ready to accept the new services, there is resistance in business. Despite a surge in interest, activities, and investments, there are reasonable scenarios that may eventually compromise the globally shared hope of Cloud as a new IT procurement paradigm. Still today it is unclear which application areas of IT can and will be outsourced to a Cloud. The hesitation is mostly over the concerns about loss of control over critical company data and of relationships with customers. A surprising and less discussed aspect of the sustainability of Cloud Computing has emerged in Japan, where the IT-Cloud infrastructure is primarily conceived as a means to support resilience in cases of natural disasters, and is only provided secondarily for public and industrial use. …