There's little doubt computers are key to how we live and work. Increasingly, where that computer power lies is changing. It is in the clouds.
Not literally, but the phrase "cloud computing" refers to putting all your computer data and services on remote computers and accessing it via the Internet.
Cloud computing is in fact huge collections of computers in vast facilities called server farms.
There can be thousands of computer systems, and you then pay to access the computer capabilities.
These farms have been expanding and faster Internet access has prompted companies from Google to IBM to offer services primarily to business. The promise is reduced costs and they won't use your data.
A recent survey of business executives in Europe and North America indicated that 96 per cent believe cloud computing is ready to serve the business world. That kind of demand is creating a whole new industry.
Derek Belair is head of business development at N-able of Ottawa.
"We're seeing a lot of vendors who are coming out with products and services to help people get onto cloud computing. It's a whole new approach, thinking outside the box, and it's creating a new business around this idea."
N-able is certainly part of this new cloud-based industry. They provide the tools that let companies access cloud computing.
A few years ago, they were one of Canada's fastest-growing companies, and they are still seeing growth of over 30 per cent despite the economic downturn
Gavin Garbutt is co-founder and CEO.
"We enable companies to get involved, and we sell our product to some 2,000 customers. We help over 35,000 small- and medium-sized companies around the world to run a wide range of applications on the cloud."
Garbutt is convinced that the groundwork has been done, and now cloud computing is about to expand rapidly. Others think it will still be a few years before it takes off.
The advantage is that it can open up to smaller companies a way for them to get low-cost services and capabilities that had been reserved for big companies, who could afford a large tech staff to run all the equipment .
Garbutt says, "The whole point is to save money and to be more efficient."
The cloud lets companies easily increase or lower their computer costs. The huge server farms can handle the basic hardware requirements. Then, companies like N-able help clients to use the cloud.
John Cowan is founder and CEO of 6fusion. He says, "You should use the cloud only as much as you are comfortable with it, and know where your data resides and who has access to it, who can use it, who can see it."
Cowan was a history grad from Queen's University who become a tech entrepreneur and wanted to standardize how you calculate the cost of the cloud.
He wanted to make it similar to buying electricity. Hydro is charged based on how many kilowatts you consume over a given period of time.
So he developed a way to measure the cost of computing. It can run from 2.5 cents an hour to 15 cents depending on where you are.
He says they call it Workplace Allocation Cube, or WAC for short. The name and the concept seem to be catching on.
"Everyone can sort of dip into a grid or computing power and take as little or as much as they want when they need it. That is the whole idea behind this movement."
Belair adds, "You don't really care about the plumbing, or who does it, or why. You just want access and the benefits and at a lower cost. "
