The world is getting smaller

The world is getting smaller

The first appearance of “the cloud” in E&P magazine occurred nearly a year ago in an interview with Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corp. Ballmer talked with Hart at Microsoft’s 7th annual Global Energy Forum about the advantages of the cloud and what it means for oil and gas companies. A few weeks ago, Microsoft was back in Houston for its 8th annual Global Energy Forum. Since last year, the focus on the cloud has gained momentum with Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform, a product Craig Hodges, Microsoft general manager, US manufacturing and resources, described as “an operating system in the cloud.”

The Windows Azure platform is fairly new. It was introduced a year ago and began to gain traction in the oil and gas industry in November 2010. According to Hodges, Azure allows companies to “put their business processes up in the cloud.”

Acceptance across industries has been quick. Hodges reported there are 20,000 customers and partners using Azure. “On a broad base, we’ve got great uptake just in the last 12 months,” he said. Large international operating companies are onboard already, Hodges said. “Seven out of 10 big energy companies around the globe are in the game.”

Chevron is one of the supermajors making use of the cloud. Chevron has improved joint venture information sharing using Windows Azure, which the operator said provides a secure space of partners to exchange technical information, allows synchronizing between on-premises and cloud databases, and offers a federated security model that allows each operator to manage its own authentication and authorization resources.

Pemex, Mexico’s national oil company, is using the cloud to standardize data management, information access, and computing infrastructure to better use existing datastores that contribute to controlling costs and optimizing production.

Shell also is using the cloud to increase business value through high levels of business integration. Jay Crotts, vice president of IT services for Shell, told attendees of the Global Energy Forum that Shell has identified four advantages of using the cloud: speed, agility, cost, and scale.

Crotts explained how Shell is using what he called a “hybrid cloud” to its advantage. The hybrid cloud combines traditional and cloud computing, he explained, listing Shell’s hybrid cloud components as infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and software as a service. The biggest challenge, according to Crotts, is not the cloud itself. The challenge is in making sure there is a consistent environment internally. “I think the cloud is ready,” he said.

Clearly, the cloud in its many applications holds great promise. “These kinds of technologies are going to make oilfield operations teams much smarter and able to manage many more fields more productively,” Hodges said.

In light of the views that surfaced at this meeting, it appears that if your company is not onboard with the cloud now, it might be time to give serious thought as to why not.

“The cloud is coming, and it’s coming faster than you might think,” Hodges said.