The term "Cloud Computing" now refers to any product or service delivered solely over the Internet channel. Within this broad definition, however, cloud computing is broken down into four major categories: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) , Software as a Service (SaaS), and Web Services. Dorado offers a PaaS architecture that enables smart collaborative transaction management, handling complex electronic data exchanges much in the way that ERP systems like SAP handle the management of myriad manufacturing parts. Layered on top of this underlying cloud architecture, Dorado has also built a suite of lending automation solutions including the company's main ChannelMaster loan origination system (LOS) for mortgage lenders.

From an enterprise perspective, Cloud Computing is closely aligned with initiatives such as the building of service-oriented architectures (SOA), utilization of web services, the virtualization of storage capacity, the growing use of virtual desk-top and other infrastructure-streamlining and worker productivity applications.

Dorado's platform as a service infrastructure underlies all of the company’s multiple financial service solutions, including the handling of complex workflows relevant to areas such as mortgage origination. The PaaS is extensible to other industries handling multi-source electronic data and characterized by complex workflows.

Why Operate in the Cloud?

The most obvious benefits are that moving your operations onto the Internet provide organizations with lower costs, reducing and moving funds traditionally spent on capital expenditures – servers and shrink-wrap applications, for example – into the more predictable and easily managed operational expense category – from CAPEX to OPEX.

Business & Technological Momentum

Organizations worldwide and several governments, led by the U.S., are embracing the cloud. This means that those who wait to explore cloud options will become increasingly disadvantaged as the developed world moves to a new operational model that will rapidly become ubiquitous. Some recent indicators of the cloud’s rapid growth:

• Gartner, a leading technology research firm, identified Cloud Computing as the top category in its annual list of Top 10 Technology Strategies (Oct 2009)
  
• IDC's latest IT Cloud Services Forecast predicts that cloud computing will make up $17.4 billion worth of IT purchases and be a $44 billion market by 2013. Moreover, the five-year forecast shows cloud computing, defined by IDC as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS), taking up 5% of the total IT market. It is projected to rise to 10% by 2013, with the market growing by 26% each year. In fact, IDC projects cloud will be 27% of all new spending -- new technologies, new companies, and new products instead of maintenance or lifecycle spending (October 2009)
  
• Forrester Research views cloud computing as one of its Top 15 Technology Trends and that it warrants investment now so organizations can gain the experience necessary to take advantage of it in its many forms.
  
• U.S. President Obama appoints cloud-proponents Vivek Kundra and Andrew McLaughlin respectively as the U.S. government's Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer in March 2009. Six months later, the government portal for cloud computing applications, apps.gov launches.

Cloud Resources

Forrester Blog for Infrastructure and IT Professionals

National Institutes of Standards & Technology

David Linthicum's Blog on SOA and Cloud Computing

Definition of Cloud Computing