[LINK] Cloud Computing Definition

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Having spent a fair bit of time looking at "cloud", here's my 2 pennyworth.

Virtalisation technology (Operating System, Storage and Network) moved 
into the midrange/internet market a few years ago. Most of these 
concepts have been around in the mainframe work for much longer.

Vendors started offering remote access to virtualised environments via 
the web - the most common being website hosting, picture/image sharing 
and file sharing. That's when the term "cloud" became popular, mainly 
because it was somewhere, "on the internet"

All this is pretty unremarkable and uncontroversial.

Then techo-geeks and vendors jumped on the bandwagon predicting the 
obliteration of the IT department and the wholesale replacement of all 
that old technology. That's when things started getting really silly.

If it's one thing you can safely bet against it's techo-geeks and 
vendors making wild predictions. It's also one reason why there are so 
many definitions of "cloud". The cloud, as described by techo-geeks and 
vendors, is a figment of their imagination, and there are lot of 
imaginative people out there, each with their own narrow view of 
technology. We oldies have seen such things many times over - who 
remembers the hype of Ada, Trustworthy Computing, 4GLs, Expert Systems, 
Japan's fifth generation computer project, the Multi-Function Polis?

When the realists get involved (i.e. people who are actually responsible 
for architecting, designing, implementing and operating real life 
information systems), they see "cloud" for what it is - virtualised 
environments run by someone else.  Environments that need integrating 
into what they've already got. Environments that they do not fully 
control. Environments that need managing via SLAs and contracts. 
Environments with questions regarding security and, most importantly, trust.

IMHO, cloud has its place, but it is largely a beat-up by the naive and 
ignorant.

My advice is, only use cloud if there is a unarguable, compelling case 
and you trust the vendor. Otherwise ignore it and it will probably go 
away or subside into just yet another way of designing systems - a way 
with its own special characteristics.




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Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
email: brd at iimetro.com.au
web:   www.drbrd.com
web:   www.problemsfirst.com
Blog:  www.problemsfirst.com/blog