Cloud computing offers positive prospects for software developers

CEBU, Philippines - Filipino software developers are urged to take advantage the opportunity offered by cloud computing.

Filipino software development firm Orange and Bronze Software Labs (O&B) chief executive officer Calen Martin Legaspi said that opportunities and challenges of the cloud for developers and techno-preneurs at cloud computing now.

Legaspi emphasized that software developers can significantly benefit from using platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for rapid and cost-effective development.

PaaS can also be an avenue for business opportunities and commercialization for budding techno-preneurs.

He mentioned the case of haybol.ph., a free real estate search site with an interactive map. It was created by two O&B employees using Google Maps and Google Apps Engine, which are cloud computing platforms and are examples of PaaS.

The haybol.ph creators only spent P3,000 for their domain name to start and keep it running.

Orange & Bronze Software Labs is a Filipino software development company delivering well-engineered, relevant software services and products to customers in the Philippines and overseas.

O&B provides software development consulting, outsourcing and offshore product development using the Spring, Hibernate and Grails frameworks, Google Technologies and the Pentaho Open-Source Business Intelligence Suite.

Cloud computing is an Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand.

It is a paradigm-shift following the shift from mainframe to client-server that preceded it in the early 1980s.

Details are abstracted from the users who no longer have need of expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supports them.

Meanwhile, a report recently conducted by IBM on global IT budget of more than 2,000 midsize companies representing more than 20 countries, revealed that these companies are investing a wide range of priorities including analytics, cloud computing, collaboration, mobility and customer relationship solutions.        The growing adoption of cloud computing among midsize firms is also noted with two-thirds either planning or currently deploying cloud-based technologies to improve IT systems management while lowering costs.

The IBM survey findings are consistent with IDC’s Philippine Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise IT Buying Behavior and Adoption Plans 2010 report, which states that with economic prospects and business expectations looking up, most SMEs are now more than ever looking at IT as an essential tool to achieve longer-term business growth.

Whether in the form of social media technology adoption as a means to push their products and services, building more dynamic Web sites, reengineering back-office functions to become automated, or improving after-sales support through a sound IT and telephony system, SMEs are expected to put a lot of effort toward IT capacity building for longer-term strategic growth, the study said. (FREEMAN)