We’re at an immature stage in the development of cloud computing. Today, the cloud represents the exception to way organizations manage technology. As the decade progresses, cloud computing will mature and evolve into the core of all IT systems.

1. Independent Clouds

2. Cross-Cloud Failover/Disaster Recovery

3. Specialized clouds

4. Cloud Bursting

5. The Cloud of Clouds

Check out the excellent commentary by George Reese at http://tinyurl.com/yzld2pb

Cloud computing is beginning to reach beyond the traditional business and consumer apps that fueled its emergence.  One interesting example, according to The Motley Fool, is Amazon’s focus on using cloud computing to advance the ability of researchers to study genomic data.

he Seattle-based online retailer has generated buzz the past few years with its foray into cloud computing through Amazon Web Services. This is the model in which customers rent server space on a pay-as-you-go basis, and get access to their data anytime via the Internet. It’s supposed to allow small businesses, governments, and anybody else to save cash and hassles by not having to buy and maintain their own in-house servers. The model is credited with enabling a new generation of lean tech startups to build businesses using far less capital.

Biological researchers haven’t embraced the new model as quickly as their tech brethren, but the cloud computing wave is coming to life sciences, says one of Amazon’s biotech liaisons,Deepak Singh. The trend is coming out of necessity. Gene sequencing has been on a breakneck pace of innovation over the past few years, as instrument makers like San Diego-based Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN) and Carlsbad, CA-based Life Technologies have lowered the cost of sequencing an entire human genome to as little as $10,000. Upstarts like Mountain View, CA-based Complete Genomics seek to sequence entire genomes for as little as $5,000, while a rival, Pacific Biosciences, is aiming to sequence genomes in 15 minutes. Since every human genome has 6 billion chemical units of DNA, this faster and cheaper form of sequencing is creating enormous datasets that somebody will need to store, analyze, compare, and visualize. Without that capability, it’s just a vast pile of data that doesn’t really lead to valuable new insights for medicine.

Computing challenges have become a “serious blocker” to people trying to make sense of the genomic wave, Singh says. And Amazon has made it a high priority over the past couple years to become the company that stores genomic data in a cheaper and more accessible way for researchers. Customers, Singh says, “have started looking at the cloud very seriously as a possible option. Over the last year or so, that curiosity has turned into serious adoption.”

Amazon‘s pay-as-you-go, rented server model has attracted partners and customers all over the country. The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, MA, is a user, along with Harvard Medical School. Life Technologies, an instrument maker, and Seattle-basedGeospiza, a bioinformatics software company, have a partnership to use Amazon’s servers to store genomic data. Palo Alto, CA-based DNAnexus, an intriguing bioinformatics startup, has built its business model around using Amazon Web Services. And one of the leading evangelists for cloud computing in genomic research is C. Titus Brown, a computer science and microbiology professor at Michigan State University, who is teaching students how to use Amazon Web Services to store the data for their experiments.

Check out the full story at http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/07/06/amazon-sees-the-future-of-biology-in-the-cloud.aspx

Peloton Technology Group is an independent consulting practice that is focused on helping clients effectively incorporate two major emerging technologies, cloud computing and mobile applications into their customer care strategy.  We offer consulting services and solution delivery in these critical technology areas.

Our mission is to assist SMB and enterprise clients in navigating the complexities of these technologies, from understanding the impact to strategy development, design, deployment and validation.  With extensive experience enabling these solutions for clients in a variety of industries, PTG brings a unique combination of experience and focus to these critical emerging solutions.

In order to bring the best solutions to bear we have partnered with several solution providers including Appregatta and Air2Web enabling us to bring best of class solutions to the table for business intelligence, predictive analytics, social media mining, mobile customer care and other emerging cloud based and mobile solutions.