New Paper Outlines Social and Economic Benefits of Cloud Computing, Offers Policy Roadmap to Foster its Growth

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 20 /PRNewswire/ — Marketspace LLC, an affiliate of Monitor Group, today released a new study titled “Envisioning the Cloud: The Next Computing Paradigm.” Commissioned by Google Inc., the white paper outlines the economic and social benefits of the emerging cloud computing model and provides a roadmap to guide policymakers who want to realize those benefits.

Authors Jeffrey Rayport, one of the nation’s leading experts on digital strategy and marketing, and Andrew Heyward, former president of CBS News, describe how a growing suite of web-based services is radically transforming the possibilities for computing by giving users the power to access and deploy applications and services through the Internet rather than from their computer. To prepare their paper, they conducted interviews with dozens of subjects in business, academia and government.

The economic and social benefits for consumers, small businesses and large enterprises of this nascent yet powerful, low-cost and energy-efficient approach to computing are numerous. According to the paper, cloud computing will create new business opportunities by reducing start-up and maintenance costs, give individuals and businesses of all sizes access to incredible processing power once reserved for only the largest enterprises, increase productivity, and speed up innovation while lowering its costs. By providing new alternatives to desktop- and server-based computing, cloud computing can also reinvigorate competition in the software market.

“If cloud computing does get established as the new paradigm for computing, our economy will organize and operate differently: individual consumers will have access to endless arrays of powerful applications at extremely low cost; organizations of all kinds will have a new platform on which to foster cooperation and collaboration; and big companies will manage spikes in business activity without tying up capital in excess IT capacity,” the paper says.

Rayport and Heyward suggest that the United States has an opportunity to be the global leader in cloud computing, which would be a tremendous economic boon. Harnessing the power of the cloud, however, will require U.S. policymakers to strike the right balance between enacting regulations that foster or affect the cloud and allowing competition to shape its evolution.

“While the competitive marketplace will heavily influence and probably determine the future of cloud computing, policymakers can play an important role, too, by creating optimal conditions for the cloud to flourish – helping to ensure universal connectivity to broadband, policing cyber-crime, clearing away potential obstacles to fair and open Internet access, and helping to lead the way with government’s own adoption of cloud services,” the paper says.

The paper outlines key factors that can allow consumers, businesses and the government to realize the full potential of the cloud:

• Full connectivity: Government policies should encourage the deployment of wireline and wireless broadband access so that users can access cloud-based services anytime, anywhere.
• Open access: A combination of market forces and FCC enforcement of existing laws can ensure users enjoy unfettered access to the Web sites and services of their choice.
• Reliability: Competition will continue to drive cloud providers to enhance their reliability. Many companies already offer contracts that effectively guarantee near 100 percent uptime.
• Interoperability and user choice: Because cloud computing is at such a nascent stage, forcing standards of interoperability may actually impede innovation. Because consumers already demand interoperability and portability, the market will drive providers to compete on these bases.
• Security: Cloud providers must make a compelling case to users that their data is safe. While competitive market forces will drive service providers to differentiate themselves on security, the government can play a role by aggressively enforcing cyber-crime laws.
• Privacy: A combination of market-driven policies and government action can best protect the data that consumers and businesses store online. Industry should develop common standards for security and privacy, and institute more protective and transparent privacy policies. Government should shield consumer data from inappropriate government scrutiny and define the rights of companies to use data about their users for commercial purposes.
• Government adoption: The federal government should become an early adopter and fund research. It can also accelerate competitive forces by insisting on standards to enhance privacy, security, openness, sustainability and interoperability.

A copy of the report can be found at http://www.marketspaceadvisory.com/cloud/

About Marketspace LLC

Marketspace LLC is a strategic advisory practice that works with companies to reinvent how they interact with and relate to customers. Marketspace is an affiliate of Monitor Group, the global strategic advisory and merchant banking firm with 1,400 professionals in 28 offices around the world. Please visit http://www.marketspaceadvisory.com for more information.

SOURCE Marketspace LLC