Computer Tenants!! You are kidding, right?

I must start with a confession- I am not a computer geek. Except, of course a few rumblings on this blog which happen to be hosted by Google somewhere in the corners of one of their googlistic computers laying around an entire city somewhere. Talking about Google, you can't really talk about computers these days without saying "Google". Which brings me to my subject. Cloud computing. I started by telling you I am not a geek. I am an ordinary computer user who recently mounted up enough energy to buy a Mac so I can look cool. It did not work. I must confess that a PC could as well have served my purpose- or saved me the headache of switching between operating systems between home and work. Oh wait, I lost my trend of thought. Oh yes, now I remember. Cloud computing.

The first time I heard this phrase I was mesmerized. My friend, a self-proclaimed geek, was going on and on about the fact that sometime soon I may not need a computer anymore. I must confess that I thought he had lost his mind. What did he mean? Everyone says we have all become zombies glued to our screens. He went on to explain. And I listened. If you want to keep friends, your wife included, learn to listen. And listen I did. After all, he is my friend. He went on to explain the new world order of computers. A world of computing like I have never seen before. "Go on", I said. And go on he did.

"Cloud computing", he said, "is a form of computing where you do not need to own any physical infrastructure like servers, etc".

Now that sounded interesting. And being a frugal technology consumer that I am, anything that saves me one technology buck is worth my back. My friend went on.

"Today more and more businesses are avoiding huge capital hardware expenditure by renting computer space from third-party providers", my friend continued. To put it in perspective he gave me an illustration.

"A few years ago, if a company needed an ERP (enterprise resource planning) tool, or a CRM (customer relationship management) tool, they hired a savvy coder to build the entire thing from ground up or they went to some software lioness like IBM or Microsoft to provide a ready-made product. Either way, the cost of the product was in the neighborhood of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Today you can have the same product from salesforce or microsoft for a fraction of that amount. What has changed? The answer is very simple: Multiple tenants".

And with that he gave me another illustration:

"Suppose you owned a five-room house downtown portland and you wanted to rent it out. How much would you charge for rent?"
"About five thousand dollars a month", I said.
"You are right", he affirmed. "But suppose a group of five foreign exchange students wanted to rent the house and they wanted to share the costs, how much would you charge per room?"
"A thousand dollars per room. Wouldn't that add up to my five thousand dollars?"
"You are wrong", he lectured. "Why don't you try fifteen hundred dollars?"

That's profound, I thought. And thats how multiple tenancy works. One house for five thousand, one room for fifteen hundred. By renting the house in rooms, you actually end up making twenty five hundred dollars more than renting the entire house to one person. At the same time, the student who would not have afforded a whole house for five thousand now has a place to live for a fraction of the cost. How brilliant.

Welcome to the world of computer tenancy.

And forgive my typing errors because I am typing this on my phone while watching Jay Leno:)