Was fortunate to have been invited to attend the CIO Strategies Conference held at the Marriott Hotel in Riyadh yesterday (Oct 5) where HP, Adobe, Vodaphone, Blackberry (RIM), Schlumberger, King Feisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh Chamber of Commerce, EMC2, and other big players in the Global It Sphere presented many interesting aspects of the challenges facing the IT Director in the decade to come.
One special aspect of the event was the extensive coverage given to Cloud Computing which seems to be the product of the Millennium where IT services will be available to the consumer, both individual and corporate, on a self service basis via the Internet more like the supply of electricity of water or any other similar utility for use as and when needed without the need for massive investments on hardware, platforms, networks, and IT Centers.
The future sure of computing looks extremely adventurous, indeed!
The luncheon buffet was also a great spread!
Cloud Computing
Sounds very interesting ! I guess the only "major" problem we could be would be the connection speed.
I don't know about KSA, but it's very slow / expensive here in Mauritius, and they are not willing to change anything 
cost of connectivity and increased bandwidth will become extremely low and freely available in the years to come with the advancement and development of mobile WiFi technology. Blackberry (RIM) consultants were also present and gave a great insight to whats in store in the future. Theres a Blackberry iPad in the offing in Jan 2011 which will titillate many a tech geek.
In my (recent) previous life in Research & Development, we had this whole Cloud Computing debate. Any progressive change is good - here are some of the issues in discussion (in general): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing#Issues
Will be interesting to see how this pans out and what the more local challenges will be.
While it is still in its infancy I can see the potential that it offers for the future in terms of freely available technical solutions at the click of a mouse without having to invest in any sophisticated and complex hardware platforms and networking infrastructure.
In the old days there was a concept of outsourcing based on the ASP model which did not take off the ground as much as expected on account of cost, security and privacy. However, with encryption and lower costs of providing such services now the whole concept looks alarmingly feasible and cost effective. Am not really sure whether I will make it to the point of enjoying its fruits but I am sure my grandkids surely will.
Google, Facebook, Youtube are prime examples of Cloud computing services that are currently available and being utilized extensively by hundreds of millions of people across the globe today at very high speeds.
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