A Panacea for Piracy?

The term cloud computing brings in the notion of using internet using a notebook that supports just a browser. Now this gives us an interesting topic to discuss further. How does Cloud Computing impact Software Piracy? The rational behind this thought is due to the fact that the ‘software piracy occurs due to developers making use of the distributable media for giving out their software which is the source for the hackers to crack the key’.

Let’s start off with some current statistics: In India 69% of the software used are pirated which cost $2.7 Billion, and globally it has grown to $53bn.  Also, the penetration of internet and broadband connection has accelerated the rate of piracy. According to IDC report, for every $1 software sold in a country $3 to $4 of revenues are generated for local firms and distribution firms.

The list of the demerits go on – piracy would bring down the tax revenue, which would have created new jobs. The cost of monitoring cyber crimes and security threats due to the pirated software is yet to be accounted for in developing countries. The countries with lowest piracy rates are US, Japan and Luxemburg while Armenia, Bangladesh and Georgia rule the top of the list for  ‘extreme buccaneering’.

Games and Enterprise packages are the two major areas that are worst hit by piracy in the IT industry. Enterprise solutions have already started their journey towards the cloud and their ‘pay-as-you-go’ cost structure has been successful in checking the piracy attempts to some extent. Computer Games which were predominantly relying on the distributable media have slowly started their migration to the cloud. ‘On Live’ is an on-line cloud game provider who hosts the games in their cloud on behalf of the game publishers. Desktop based game giants like Warner Bros, Epic Games, Electronic Arts have already started to engage such cloud providers to host their games on-line. This demands a horizontal shift in nature of the game enthusiasts from ‘downloadable game’ to ‘paid on-line games’.

But no technology can eradicate piracy as a whole, since the geeks and hackers would find enough loopholes in the cloud to be exploited mercilessly. Rather, it would be more convincing if we say that cloud might take the notion of piracy to a new paradigm. Still, we cannot visualise piracy in a world where ‘there is nothing to download on to a distributable media’. Perhaps the existing measures of consumer education, strong intellectual property policies, effective law enforcement and legalisation programs will still be valid and be the only consoling answer even in cloud.

All software are conceived to be perfect, designed to be efficient, developed to perform and put into use to fail. As Murphy’s law goes , “If it can go wrong, It will”. If it can be hacked and pirated on earth, it can be in cloud too. But how or rather what cloud can do to stop would be revealed by time? Is cloud going to be the panacea to the piracy menace? Probably the answer lies with the future pirates!!

Cloud Pour and Hard Disk Erosion?

Everyday new service providers are entering into the cloud space giving new offers for hard drive space up in the sky. Microsoft with SkyDrive, DropBox one of the pioneers,  Adrive, Box.net, Carbonite list goes on….

Now with this list being growing day by day it would be fascinating to watch the trends growing in this arena. What about the fate of the list of external hard drive manufacturers like Seagate, Hitachi, Samsung, Western Digital, Transcend Storejet, Lacie Rikiki and the innumerous brands we have in the domestic markets dumped straight from Chinatown?

Has the growth of cloud overshadowed the hard disk market and eaten up any major portion of the pie?

Storage being the fastest  cloud service growing at a rate of 9% ie  $1.6Billion  to  14%  ie over  $14Billion  as per the IDC reports. IDC  reports  show that the worldwide external disk storage revenue has been declining year over year 18.3% in 2009 totalling $4.1Billion. Also the growing success of cloud in stealing the confidence of the customers  could be another nail on the coffin of external hard disks.

The backup solution strategies have paid off to the hard disk companies like Lacie, but at the same time cloud has been pouring down on to the desktop in the form of huge number of desktop applications to pull up the data from local hard disks.

The cloud will lie peacefully on the top of the Gartner hyperbole untill they find another technology to take the “Hype-dom”.  Till then cloud hype can shatter many more markets.

Strategic Cloud

The aim of this blog is to initiate a dialogue and discussion around the Cloud Computing and the Strategy driving it. Our interests are in Cloud Computing, Green IT, Strategic IT and their role and  developing nations. We help firms to strategically align themselves with cloud technologies in the competitive world with efficient cost structures.

Is Cloud computing an easier and affordable way for  organisations to tap into the Information Technology  as service. Perhaps the combination of Mobile technology revolution  and other participatory devices could make difference in developing countries.