These days, it is not hard to find blogs, social media sites, and web articles talking about "the Cloud". In fact, if you are reading this blog or use social media, you are probably already familiar with the value of cloud computing.
One way to think of cloud computing is to see it as a choice you make to outsource your computing infrastructure and the applications that run on this infrastructure to someone else. It's like choosing not to have a home desktop computer with local applications running on the machine and instead using web-based applications running on someone else's machine to do the same things (e.g., run home finance software, play games, etc.). This is made possible by the internet, where you can remotely access web-based apps either freely or as a paid service.
In this model, you don't worry about:
- The Hardware — the server running the software and whether it has enough CPU or to ensure the application is available when you need it or performs well when you access it.
- The Operating System — do you choose Windows 2008, or Linux? Which virus protection should you choose? How is it licensed for use? When will you need to upgrade?
- The Application — who on your team will manage upgrades to the application, and tune it to ensure it can run on the OS and hardware as they change over time? How do you make changes to the software? Do you hire your own developers?
With cloud computing, you outsource all of these worries to a third party, who in return sells you a service, typically billable on a monthly basis, that is scalable based on how much you use the software.
For energy producers, it's not hard to see the value in such a system. The core competencies for most producers are in discovering resource plays, exploiting them, then selling the resource. They typically aren't in setting up and maintaining computing hardware, host networks, and software, ensuring they stay ahead of the obsolescence curve, that their data management security exceeds standards, and hiring the proper experts to manage this whole process. But the modern techniques of data management around well and operations management require expertise in these areas and more. Today's oil and gas producer is then faced with a choice: dedicate valuable resources and infrastructure to an area far outside their area of expertise, or outsource that role to a third party through cloud computing.
Cloud computing has been around now for over ten years, and virtually any business process that you have, from sales funnel management, customer relationship management, order and inventory tracking, financial systems, and productivity tools, can now be found as cloud computing options. This leads to a startling conclusion: In the future, you could work in a firm that has no computers. All you would need is access to the internet, and all of your company's business processes could be supported by applications running elsewhere.
To sum up, the benefits to your business of using cloud computing are:
- Pay-as-you-grow pricing. Software is typically priced based on the amount it is used. Think of this as renting software. This allows you to avoid large up-front capital costs on depreciable infrastructure, and invest instead on your core business areas.
- Up and running quickly. You don't need to run an internal project to put the infrastructure in place to run the applications. The buying process now is about evaluating options, often through live demos, and ultimately, executing a service contract. Project work may still be required (for example, if you want to migrate data to the cloud), but this is usually straightforward.
- Evergreen and secure. Someone else worries about technology obsolescence and keeps the hardware, OS, and software up-to-date with an ever-evolving set of features. Someone else worries about data backups and security practices. No additional IT staff to hire.
