Linking Outside The Box: A Briefing On Cloud Computing

High tech businesses are always looking for ways to cut costs, reduce TCO(Total Cost Of Ownership) and increase productivity. For years, enterprise environments have housed servers, applications and and data with on-site IT staff. This just isn't cutting it anymore. With the advent of SaaS, (Software As A Service) the realm of outsourcing applications busted wide open, propelling third party vendors and begging developers to go web based. As time goes by, processors, media and storage resources are becoming smaller and faster. This creates new ways of implementing technology. In another sense money, or the lack of has become the catalyst of cloud computing.

We can see this model applied to super computing environments. Nodes are stacked, racked and linked together to generate enormous power. Throughout the life cycle of the system, nodes are replaced with newer, smaller and more powerful processors. Cloud computing is just the name behind the method applied to the consumer and business level. The idea is not new, the implementation is new.

I always understand things better in a methodical sense. Lets further break down the concept so we can understand what all the fuss is about. We can loosely define cloud computing in a couple of ways.

1. SaaS: As stated earlier in the article, SaaS is the process of offering applications to multiple users over the net. All the licensing, distributing and access can be had in one location. A new start up called OnLive has really took the concept of the SaaS cloud to a new level. They offer a video game solution that renders all the graphics remotely. Goodbye discs and hardcore SLI configurations. While you're at it, mosey on over to Google Docs. It essentially is SaaS incarnate.

2. Utility Computing: This is the newer implementation process behind the cloud. Large (extremely large) remote data centers act as on site appliances. This reduces TCO. Remember, it's all made possible by Moores Law.

An article from Info World further articulates the idea behind cloud computing.

"Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT(s) existing capabilities."2

Also, the term is some what ambiguous.

"Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility computing: basically virtual servers available over the Internet. Others go very broad, arguing anything you consume outside the firewall is "in the cloud," including conventional outsourcing."

There are more substructures behind the concept of cloud computing. We only touched a couple to get a grasp of the nebulous term. Hopefully this has been insightful in your quest for further understand THE CLOUD.

Sources:

1. http://lonewolflibrarian.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/cloud-computing-kitchen-sink.jpg

2. http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031