You may have heard about cloud computing but never knew what it was, or how it can make businesses more green and cost efficient. Cloud computing means that instead of running software applications on your computer, you run the apps in the "clouds" in cyberspace, in other words through the Internet. All your programs and files are stored on an outsourced computer network residing on remote servers. Sometimes, certain aspects of cloud computing are referred to as platform as a service [PaaS] and software as a service [SaaS]. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has just updated a downloadable Excel database of 16 different publicly traded companies with some connection to cloud computing.

Do you use Yahoo (YHOO) mail or Google's (GOOG) gmail? Then in a small way, you are using cloud computing. In other words, you don't have an email server in your home or office, you're taking advantage of the cloud offered by Yahoo or Google. As a matter of fact, many companies, organizations, and universities have turned their email system over to gmail. If you have ever used Google Docs or Google Calendar, you have experienced another example of cloud computing. Google will be one of the major players in this field. The stock has a P/E of 26, is debt free, and has over $24 billion in cash.
Here are a dozen of the economic and green advantages of clouds:
1. Server equipment cost reduction due to elimination of the necessity of on-site servers.
2. Staffing cost savings, since there is little or no need for on-site network administration.
3. Potential for lower software licensing costs.
4. Elimination of server maintenance costs.
5. Small initial upfront investment.
6. Built-in computer disaster recovery services & back-up sites.
7. Reduction in client station costs. In other words, no need to buy new computers for staff as long as existing computers can connect to the Internet.
8. If additional staff computers need to be purchased, they can be cheap 'dumb' terminals.
9. Clouds provide scalability; can easily grow as the company grows.
10. The ease of the sharing of resources.
11. Services can be automated.
12. Speed of access of data.

As for disadvantages, the one major concern is security of the data. So it is a matter of which is more trustworthy, your own company or a company that specialized in data security. Another option is the utilization of cloud computing within a large corporation. Everything stays 'in-house'.

One major company in this currently narrow industry is Salesforce.com (CRM), a provider of customer-relationship management services. They have been promoting 'the end of software'. Salesforce doesn't just market to the small and medium size-companies, they have major users of their services, including Corporate Express division of Staples (SPLS), Daiwa Securities, Expedia (EXPE), Dow Jones Newswires subsidiary of News Corp. (NWSA), SunTrust Banks (STI), and Kaiser Permanente. Salesforce has a very high P/E ratio of 117, a small amount of debt amounting to about $18 million, with almost $445 million in cash.

To access a free Excel spreadsheet database of many companies which are involved in cloud computing that can be sorted, added to, and changed, go to wsnn.com.
Disclosure: Author does not own any of the above.

Orginal article posted on Seeking Alpha by Stockerblog.  Read the it here.

While the intent of much of the global economy is with high aspirations towards a better environment, there are some fast and efficient ways to improve your carbon footprint with the use of smart inventory software for inventory management and a greener supply chain. The key to cooperative parties is to educate and bring on board as many of the company's business participants as possible, whether or not they have made a fully fledged commitment to go-green.

The first step to effective reduction of the carbon footprint is to accurately assess where the company stands now. Take careful stock of paper, water and energy costs and build a strategy to cut consumption at every level. Each step forward, no matter how small, sets the company on the pathway to an eco-friendly module that will soon be emulated by others. Perhaps the most influential retailer to take the helm and inspire others was Wal-Mart. The corporate giant set forth a campaign that required all their suppliers to show a report on each company's recycling and reduction of carbon emission efforts, made verifiable by Wal-Mart. Since the plan went into action, Wal-Mart suppliers have shown a valiant effort in lowering their energy consumption and seeking the aid of technology for comprehensive greenhouse solutions.

A few weeks back there was a NY Times article on South Korea's concept of the Ubiquitous City, where an area called New Songdo would arguably become the most networked place in the world.  Following the crash of the Asian markets a few years back, Seoul made a concerted effort to move from an industrial economy to that of one based on IT.  In this vein, they've created the concept for the Ubiquitous City.  For example, recycling bins could use RFID to credit you with recycling a glass bottle, if you need a birth certificate you could get one printed from a city government kiosk on the sidewalk, there's even talk of pressure sensitive floors to detect a fall in an elderly persons home...  Naturally, storing and processing all this data would be ideally suited for the Cloud and it seems that Korean government feels the same.

To develop their Cloud infrastructure, the government just announced that they will be devoting $172 million dollars over the next year to help the private sector promote, develop and deploy Cloud based systems.   While that might not be considered a lot of money in some circles (especially when it comes to government funding) the fact that the Seoul is putting any money towards this nascent industry is a sign of forward thinking and can only bode well for SaaS vendors worldwide.  Kudos to South Korea for putting its money where its mouth is...

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There have been a lot of these types of articles circling around the web on various blogs etc., this article is informative and eye opening, it left me thinking.....

Here are some highlights:

SaaS Application Power Consumption:

GreenBiz.com reports that companies using outsourced data centers can save thousands of dollars per year in energy costs, as well as make significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent study.

Based on the energy savings earned by customers of NetSuite, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company based in San Mateo, Calif., companies can save an average of $10,000 a year by outsourcing their computing needs to highly efficient and optimized third parties.

A study conducted by Greenspace, an Illinois-based vendor of green building supplies, found that NetSuite customers who signed up for the company's Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management software services saved a combined $61 million in energy bills per year. The energy savings, equaling almost 595 million kilowatt-hours, led to avoided greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 423,000 metric tons of CO2.