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he computer age had its early beginnings inside of the data center. Early business computers were giant, noisy machines which resided in specially-built rooms, and were only administered by specially trained computer operators.
Then, in the 1980s, personal computers appeared on the market and empowered companies to give each employee their very own automation and computation resources.
This revolutionary innovation greatly improved corporate productivity and value creation capability, and helped move society from a manufacturing economy into a knowledge-based and service-based economy. And this effect was only multiplied by the Internet’s ability to connect worldwide users for instant collaboration.
But of course, this also created a number of problems for companies.
- Because of all these new machines, companies had to hire new IT staff and create whole new departments to maintain and troubleshoot these devices. These personal computers also needed to be frequently updated and replaced to keep pace with obsolescence, which created a constant source of IT expenses.
- Companies also had to deal with increased networking and backup complexity as mobile laptop users began taking their work on the road. Corporate data was spread out across many decentralized machines. Because of this, companies had a hard time tracking and managing their intellectual assets. And in the event that a personal computer or laptop was stolen, it could lead to privacy breaches or legal problems.
Private cloud computing is a new paradigm which proposes to eliminate many of these issues by taking computing away from the PCs and moving it back into the datacenter.
The classic example of cloud-based end-user computing would be a virtual desktop environment. A user installs the virtual desktop client software, and accesses their virtual computer – which is hosted in a remote datacenter – through a screen on their machine. If your computer breaks down, you can simply move to another machine and load the virtual desktop client to continue from where you last left off.
Another example of cloud computing would be your Gmail account, which can be accessed from any web browser, on any device, and from any location. You can access your Gmail on your work desktop, on your home laptop, on your smartphone, or on your tablet.
A private cloud productivity environment computer is not a physical device. Instead, it’s a set of virtual interfaces that follow you everywhere you go. And instead of spreading resources across hundreds of machines, companies maintain control by keeping all of its intellectual resources close at hand in the safety and security of their datacenter.
Keeping data centralized in this way ensures that it’s easily accessible if needed for legal reasons. And by keeping this data off of remote machines, you also help to prevent privacy breaches and data loss in the event that a laptop or desktop is stolen.
Private clouds also help companies cut cost substantially, since they can now implement BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies where employees get bonuses by working from their own computers. This saves money because the company no longer needs to purchase new computers, and the IT department no longer needs to worry about updating, upgrading or replacing desktop computers.
And since users can work from anywhere, and on any device, the Internet becomes the primary network infrastructure. This eliminates much of the complexity involved in maintaining a typical corporate IT infrastructure.
The private cloud trend is quickly taking over, since it allows organizations to centralize resources, cut costs, improve efficiencies, empower employees and eliminate many of the risks and complications that come from corporate desktop computing.
What kind of an effect do you think private clouds will have on the future of work? Let us know in the comments!
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