Cloud Computing: Nation Transformation

Philip Abraham, Founder, Chairman & Chief Technology Officer at CloudFace Labs & CloudFace LLC  participates in Risk Roundup with Jayshree Pandya to discuss “Cloud Computing and Nation Transformation”.   Introduction As cloud computing shapes the “Digital Global Age”, we the humans now have the ability to imagine, innovate, and create a whole new world of possibilities– a novel way of doing things that was beyond individual human imagination and capabilities so far. It seems that this amazing ability of “cloud computing” extends the range of human imagination and exploration beyond the individual, inherent, imperfect and incomplete processing capability of the human brain as we know now. As a result, “cloud computing” is seen by many across nation as the innovation that would bring next wave of fundamental transformation for nations: its government, industries, organizations and academia (NGIOA). While “cloud computing” is getting embraced for the potential benefits it could provide in speed, efficiency, flexibility, authenticity, accessibility and affordability; it isn’t just about benefiting industries or improving processes. It greatly benefits governments, organizations, academia as well as individuals, in short entire nations, irrespective of their geographical location and gives an opportunity for novel business, management and governance models. Cloud Computing is very much on its way towards fundamentally shaping and enabling a deeper understanding of everything– from the behavior of nations: its government, industries, organizations, academia and individuals (NGIOA-I), to projecting complex business, economic and societal outcomes. As a result, “cloud computing”-driven insights are now providing both direct and indirect benefits to the daily lives of individuals and entities across NGIOA through advances in pretty much everything. Cloud computing not only has the potential to accelerate ideas, innovations and transformation in cyberspace but also encourages and enhances collaborations and cooperation within, between and across NGIOA in cyberspace, geospace and space (CGS). As a result, the ability to collect and evaluate data in cyberspace from numerous sources in geospace and space creates a huge potential for cloud computing to generate breakthroughs in many fields! In short, cloud computing brings nations, and human society a potential to bring fundamental transformation and is on its way to changing the way entities across NGIOA drive value from the Digital Global Age. This gives a hope that, cloud computing is going to further the markets and economies—for both the developing and developed nations! It is growing rapidly and the growth is not only happening in advanced geographical nations and regions, but expected across all nations and regions. While “cloud computing” brings disruptive potential and possibilities for each individual and entities across NGIOA, it also brings critical security risks that needs to be identified, understood and managed. Cloud Computing Until now, computing power was considered a limited and luxurious resource, accessible to only some. Now, with the advent of cloud computing, computing power is finally becoming abundant, affordable and accessible. This is undoubtedly driving a fundamental paradigm shift—a fundamental transformation from the computing of scarcity to the computing of abundance and is disrupting not only the existing Information and Communications Technology industry, but also other industries across nations. The possibility, potential and reach of cloud computing is believed to be transformational. Coupled with the wealth of data it creates and enables, cloud computing brings nations a promise of transformative potential. There is a growing belief that cloud computing along ...