Cloud computing : implications for enterprise software vendors (ESV)

'Cloud computing', is a broad concept and in general is a term used for internet-based computing resources that are in an unspecified remote location or locations and that are flexible and fungible. Clouds provide a wide range of computing capability available as a service where users are separated from the underlying technology by a set of APIs. These computing capabilities are made available by abstracting at different levels; at the hardware level, development platform or the applications level. Cloud computing is particularly helpful to application developers and IT operations because it allows them to focus on the service/application provided rather than worrying about scaling, failure, maintenance or reliability of these computing resources. By consolidating and sharing computing resources among multiple tenants thus improving utilization, cloud computing brings cost savings to end users. The higher the abstraction level, greater are the benefits resulting from better resource utilization and thus more cost savings, both for providers and end users. As computing resources become cheaper, network connectivity and bandwidth improve both in terms of availability and pricing and human resources becomes expensive, cloud computing is increasingly seen as viable replacement of enterprise owned local IT infrastructure.