Category: Business, Economics and Finance / Company News / Computers and Technology / Internet Technology / Retail

Amazon technology chief says future of cloud computing is here

Monday, 26 Sep 2016 16:38:11 | Peter Ryan

It sounds like a brave new world that is rapidly disrupting big business and government departments.

But "the cloud" could soon be coming to a home near you in very meaningful ways.

For many, talk of cloud computing is eye-glazing technology jargon, but the man overseeing over one million cloud clients for internet giant Amazon says the technology is no longer the sole domain of big companies with big IT budgets.

Werner Vogels, chief technology officer at Amazon Web Services, says greater competition and greater consumer power puts cloud technology within reach of even small companies and more importantly, average households.

Speaking in Sydney, Mr Vogels said cloud technology ultimately means any connected device will become part of the "internet of things" and change the lives of consumers.

"Almost anything that draws a current will eventually become connected to a network," Mr Vogels told The World Today.

"Whether that is the lamps in your house, whether it is your doorbell, your car or your garage door opener, all things will be co-connected.

"You will be able to talk to your oven, switch it on, and set the temperature to 200."

Mr Vogels cited the disruption caused by the likes of Dropbox, Uber and Airbnb as examples of the power of cloud computing over traditional on-site servers.

"All these household names that we have today are young businesses that have grown up on the cloud and became really big really quickly without having to own any IT resources," Mr Vogels said.

He said large traditional "bricks and mortar" companies are coming to Amazon for advice on how to revamp their IT systems and workplaces.

"There's a real urgency with companies asking how can you help us become more innovative and to compete with these young agile businesses," he said.

Amazon Australia's managing director Paul Migliorini said Qantas recently used cloud computing in calculating the ability to launch a new direct flight from Sydney to Dallas in the United States.

Mr Migliorini said Qantas combined computer power via cloud technology and had dramatically cut the hypothesis process from four months to hours.

"They couldn't put the data together to convince Airbus there was a valid new flight path," Mr Migliorini said.

"By effectively putting tens of thousand of computers all on it once, they were able to radically shorten the cycle."

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce recently attributed a significant part of financial savings at Qantas to technology improvements.

Follow Peter Ryan on Twitter and on his Main Street blog.



 

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