Cloud computing 'to change businesses' approach to IT'

The introduction of cloud computing to businesses across the globe will have a profound impact on the way they pay for IT services, it has been claimed.

Instead of paying by central processing unit (CPU), as is the present approach, David Keene, a vice president of business software provider SAP, has suggested businesses will in future pay on consumption, as web hosting facilities become more popular.

"Cloud application platforms will essentially battle with the on-premise platforms, [and they] will become available more and more as long as it manages solutions," he told delegates at the Intellect Annual Regent Conference 2009.

But Mr Keene said that standardised technology would be developed over the month and years ahead, so as to allow the variety of services and platforms "to float together in easier and easier patterns".

A recent study from Forrester Research warned that global purchases of IT goods and services by businesses and governments would decline by three per cent in 2009 due to the global economic slowdown.

Written by Greig Daines