Will People Fully Embrace Cloud Gaming?
In recent years the world of gaming has seen a shift in the way in which games are played and therefore the way they need to be developed. In 2002 Xbox released the Xbox Live system, allowing gamers all around the world to connect via the internet and play games together. Since then all of the other consoles have caught up and now provide the same functionality.
With this revolution in gaming ability, the actual games themselves have become more geared towards being played online, with development companies working on improving the online multiplayer functionality over the solo gaming.
But now it seems this whole idea is going one step further with the increased presence of Cloud Gaming.
What is Cloud Gaming?
Using cloud hosting services, companies such as OnLive and Gaikai can host games on their network and allow users to login via an internet connection and play them on their TV, as they would with a traditional disc in a console, but without having to go out and actually buy the physical game.
The idea with this is that it gives users instant access to games across TV, computer and even Smartphone’s with internet connections.
Will Cloud Gaming Take Over?
It is hard to imagine the fall of gaming powerhouses such as Playstation and Xbox but there are a lot of benefits to Cloud Gaming. With no need to buy the physical game the costs of gaming can be greatly reduced and on a subscription basis. Also this option means you never have to have the game with you, if you away or on your phone you can just login and access your content.
Cloud Gaming also greatly plays into the new obsession with online multiplayer gaming and will help enable that service. The only downside is that if the servers were ever to go down on which the games were hosted it could interrupt and annoy a lot of people!
The other issue is the content available on these clouds. Take Xbox which is synonymous with the game brand Halo and the only platform it is available on. If gamers couldn’t access this on a service such as OnLive would they want to switch to this service?
Cloud Gaming is definitely a revolution in the industry and will enable the expansion of multiplayer gaming online, but it will be difficult for Cloud Gaming companies to pull gamers away from the traditional gaming icons.
Microsoft survey overturns conventional view of cloud security for SMBs
Security. The word always comes up when discussing cloud computing including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).
This area generally is one of the biggest roadblocks inhibiting small businesses from taking up cloud services from hosting providers at an even more rapid rate.
However, you may be surprised to hear that a recent Microsoft Survey may upturn the conventional wisdom floating around cloud security these days.
“Cloud-using businesses spend, on average, 32 percent less time during the week managing security than their non-cloud-using counterparts,” said PC mag.
And, the study reveals that 35% of U.S. companies survey has experienced higher levels of security since moving to the cloud. This means they spend less time worrying about cyber attacks and end up spending less on managing security as a percentage of overall ad spend.
“When companies embrace and invest in cloud services, they find the benefits far outweigh previous concerns. Time and money spent managing security prior to using cloud services is being reinvested by SMBs to grow their businesses and be more competitive,” said Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Microsoft Trustworthy computing.
One particular company cited in the study, is worth mentioning. It saved $90,000 in IT costs over a span of six months or roughly $15,000 per month. The move to a cloud-based management and security solution allowed it to streamline business processes relating to mobile rich content distribution. It was also able to retire third-party AV systems and anti-malware tools in the process.
The company also reported that support calls dropped by nearly 70%! There are of course a number of Microsoft-SaaS products offered remotely over the Internet by major hosting providers including SharePoint Server and Microsoft Exchange for Email.
Both of these may require a large IT staff and budget to maintain in-house. By off shoring this complexity to the cloud, businesses can focus on generating revenue and reduce time spent on troubleshooting legacy infrastructure issues.
Microsoft commissioned the cloud security survey via veteran online research and statistic company, Comscore. Those polled were Small Businesses with between 100 and 250 personal computers.
Check to the infographic to feed visually off the data provided by Microsoft and Comscore.
Government Launching G-Hosting to go Alongside G-Cloud
Earlier this year the Government launched a new G-Cloud project to allow the public sector to make use of pre-approved cloud hosting providers, including Virtual Internet, and now they have decided to go one step further with the launch of G-Hosting.
The new G-Hosting initiative will allow more complex applications within the public sector to be shared using virtualised environments. This means that applications that aren’t currently supported by the G-Cloud initiative, such as highly complex legacy systems, will now be supported and can securely be shared within the public sector.
Cost of G-Hosting
Both the G-Cloud and G-Hosting will help improve the efficiency of many areas within the public sector and allow for secure sharing via a virtual cloud, however, the implementation and maintenance of both of these systems is coming at a cost.
According to recent reports, it is expected that by the year 2015 the Government will have spent a total of £250 million on the G-Cloud and by the year 2016 a further £470 million on the new G-Hosting, showing a strong commitment to the project.
G-Cloud Security
All of the companies involved with the G-Cloud and G-Hosting project have had to go through rigorous security checks as the biggest issue with sharing in the Public Sector is security. However, with the G-Hosting network highly sensitive information will be securely hosted, meaning it can be shared within a virtual environment.
This shows that even the Government and Public Sector have caught the cloud bug and it looks like it won’t be long before it is the norm in all businesses in the UK.
Where did it all begin?
Cloud computing has come on leaps and bounds since its inception and as we now move towards an age where cloud computing becomes the norm, we take a look back at how it all began.
An Accurate Vision
The concept surrounding cloud computing can be traced all the way back to the 1950s when Herb Grosch, author of Grosch’s Law, stated that the world would one day ‘operate on dumb terminals powered by about 15 large data centres’. Writing this article I indeed sat at one of those so called ‘dumb terminals’, whilst to even have the ability to read this article, you too are using a ‘dumb terminal’, be it a computer or a smartphone. The term ‘dumb terminal’ is thus rather oxymoronic if you are indeed using your ‘smart’-phone.
Furthermore, in the 1960s John McCarthy explained that “Computation may someday be organised as a public utility”. It appears both these men were right!
Inception and Development
The term ‘cloud’ has been used, quite generically, as a metaphor for the internet since the 80s. Throughout the 1990s, many telecommunications companies started offering virtual private network (VPN) services to their customers. They discovered that this allowed them to utilise their overall network bandwidth much more effectively and the famous cloud drawing was used to illustrate the system. Essentially, cloud computing extends such a system in order to cover servers as well as network infrastructure.
Following the end of the dot.com bubble at the beginning of the new Millennium, Amazon emerged as the leading light in the development of cloud computing as they modernised their data centres and found that the new cloud architecture gave a significant improvement in internal efficiency. In 2006, Amazon eventually launched Amazon Web Service (AWS) on a utility computing basis in order to provide cloud computing to its external customers.
Following this, in 2007, the real rise of cloud computing came to the fore and ever since the cloud has grown and adapted and it continues to be improved each and every day. Cloud infrastructure has come a long way, and soon it will be a necessity for all businesses and internet users.
Survey Reveals Cloud Adoption Should Quadruple
Cloud adoption amongst enterprises is now expected to significantly grow throughout the rest of 2012, however it has also been revealed that some serious obstacles must be overcome. This is according to a customer survey carried out by Cisco Systems.
The 2012 Cisco Global Cloud Networking Survey of 100 IT executives in each of 13 countries has unveiled that while just 5% of the IT executives are currently using cloud computing technology, in order to deliver the majority of the software applications they are using within their business, the figure is expected to rise to around 20% by the end of the year, thus quadrupling the amount of enterprises using cloud hosting as a solution.
Inbar Lasser-Raab, Senior Marketing Director of the Cisco Services Routing Technology Group (SRTG) has been explaining: “The reason so many are moving the majority of their apps to the cloud is because there are more cloud applications out there, more choice, and then there's the maturity of the process.”
She went on to state that the cloud adoption process is beginning to mature as businesses are becoming more familiar with the technology and how cloud computing can benefit their business. It thus seems the adoption of cloud computing is on an upward curve, however this hasn’t, so far, simplified the process as it remains complex, time-consuming and includes a number of pitfalls. This, again, was revealed by the customer survey. 37% of the IT executives surveyed suggested that networking issues was the primary challenge that cloud computing must overcome.
As cloud computing has progressed and cloud adoption has grown, many enterprises discovered the limitations of their current wide area network (WAN) infrastructure and so depending on the application, the infrastructure may need to be upgraded. A typical WAN link, in the case of a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployment, can support 20 virtual desktop sessions however they may not deliver the sub-50 millisecond latency limit that is required in a service legal agreement (SLA). Inbar Lasser-Raab concluded that cloud technology has had to adapt and grow to adhere to many considerations that were not previously planned for.