Cloud Computing for professional world

Overview: I am currently engaged in software product design and development, leveraging the open source and cloud computing platforms.
This is a period of economic recession, almost in every part of the world. IT service businesses are also affected adversely. To the surprise of several industry analysts, we are now witnessing the phenomenal emergence of the cloud computing technologies- a new paradigm shift in the way internet applications are developed and deployed. IDC analysts predict USD 42B worth business by 2012 and Gartner reports some kind of world-wide adoption of this technology by 2016. Intel Corporation predicts 25% of its server platforms are likely to be deployed by its clients for some sort of cloud deployment in 2009. Very strong business results have been reported in this line of technology by almost all industry leaders in 2008 and 2009. Almost every significant players in the IT industry has product as well as service offers to make in cloud computing market. To drive the point home, salesforce.com, a strong SAAS presence in the industry has become a billion dollar company despite the worldwide economic down trend. We also have business news on an increasing number of large size services contracts in cloud computing arena.
Why Google App Engine platform?
The Google App Engine™ platform is uniquely positioned among the cloud computing offers, we believe. This is a comprehensive platform on which programmers can develop cloud applications with ease and deploy them on the Google Infrastructure™. For small entrepreneurs, developing applications on Google App Engine™ platform is practically free, until their application becomes a huge success on the cyber space. If the application really grows beyond its free quota, say, on the storage, the CPU cycles or on the bandwidth requirements, the entrepreneur can continue to run the application by paying for the incremental consumption of web resources on a pay-as-you-go basis.
What is there in it for Software Developers?
As developers, how do we re-skill fast enough to take advantage of this technology innovation and help our own organizations and clients? We believe an early hand-holding for experienced programmers and web enthusiasts would be advantageous for developing web applications on the Google App Engine™ platform and using it to create a general awareness about the cloud computing technologies. We have set the objective of this one day promotional workshop to meet this requirement of software houses and other developer communities
Cloud computing simultaneously a concept, a technology and sourcing strategy. As such, it constitutes a
business strategy. We maintain that the adoption of technology and technology delivery models is driven by several variables – which can be weighted by technology buyers according to their relative importance.
First and foremost is corporate culture. Closed conservative cultures will attack change – just because that’s what closed, conservative cultures do (though significant cost savings can get the attention of even the Flat Earth Society). Senior leadership is also an opportunity – or constraint.
Some technology executives are open to pilots, while some are not. The financial state of the company will also drive technology adoption: companies losing money are skeptical of everything. Companies making lots of money are risk-takers – at least relative to the cultures. Before assessing the potential of cloud computing some attention should be paid to the context in which the assessment is likely to occur.
On one level, Cloud Computing represents an integrated sourcing concept. On another level, it’s a strategic framework. On still another, it’s a delivery roadmap. What makes sense for CXOs and the business partners they serve?
Cloud Computing represents an opportunity to simultaneously re-think core competency, sourcing strategies, technology funding and operational versus strategic technology and each ones’ readiness for accessing the cloud – all in the context of more and more (old and new) cloud providers.