What is Cloud Computing?
Well, Wikipedia calls it "Cloud computing is an example of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the "cloud" that supports them.
The concept generally incorporates combinations of the following:
You have to love that answer...or lack thereof. I find that wikipedia entries are either written for the Nobel Laureate, or for the pet rock. Nothing really in between. So, here we go for the normal people...JB's description:
"Cloud computing is taking all of the hardware, systems, applications and desktops and moving them to the Internet so they are easily accessible, and monitored and maintained in secure, redundant data centers."
Cloud computing basically is the term used to place applications from Microsoft Exchange to the custom written application running on a virtual desktop out on the web. There are several types of clouds to include the public cloud (most often used and is easily accessible via the Internet), the private cloud (which I will discuss next) and a hybrid of the two.
The public cloud has advantages like the lower cost of services because you are sharing resources from the hardware the application is running on to the overqualified people supporting it. The ROI (almost afraid to use that term as it is really opportunity costs, and cost avoidance more than a return on an investment) is always good because often there isn't capital required to join the public network.
The private cloud on the other hand is a bit trickier. A private cloud is often a misunderstood term. In my eyes, the private cloud, is not really a cloud at all. A private cloud is a connection of private circuits connecting to private networks in the cloud data centers. The purpose for this is the security and redundancy aspect. In my eyes, the private cloud is another name for the greener wide area network. It is greener because it utilizes virtual machines like VMWare, and virtual LANs, but not green enough as it requires a total seperation and the sharing of resources is degraded considerably.
Why the private cloud? Some say it is because of security, which is often less secure than the public cloud. The other is the misconception that federal regulations require that all agencies in the federal government must have a clear deliniating line between each other. People take this a bit far and think that means you need a 2 mile trench between you and your neighbor and if you are caught making smoke signals to the other team, they will place you in front of the firing line and shoot you with the squirtgun until you are wet to your underwear. I say, wear plastic undies. You are much more likely to lose data on a laptop than you are off of the servers on the public network.
The hybrid cloud is a combination of the two in which often used Internet-based resources such as email or a CRM will be used on a public cloud and the mission critical applications will be used on the private cloud.
You may be asking yourself, "didn't we try this once before with application service providers (ASP)?" Short answer is yes...and no. The time of the ASP was plagued with challenges to include:
The concept generally incorporates combinations of the following:
- Infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
- Platform as a service (PaaS).
- Software as a service (SaaS).
You have to love that answer...or lack thereof. I find that wikipedia entries are either written for the Nobel Laureate, or for the pet rock. Nothing really in between. So, here we go for the normal people...JB's description:
"Cloud computing is taking all of the hardware, systems, applications and desktops and moving them to the Internet so they are easily accessible, and monitored and maintained in secure, redundant data centers."
Cloud computing basically is the term used to place applications from Microsoft Exchange to the custom written application running on a virtual desktop out on the web. There are several types of clouds to include the public cloud (most often used and is easily accessible via the Internet), the private cloud (which I will discuss next) and a hybrid of the two.
The public cloud has advantages like the lower cost of services because you are sharing resources from the hardware the application is running on to the overqualified people supporting it. The ROI (almost afraid to use that term as it is really opportunity costs, and cost avoidance more than a return on an investment) is always good because often there isn't capital required to join the public network.
The private cloud on the other hand is a bit trickier. A private cloud is often a misunderstood term. In my eyes, the private cloud, is not really a cloud at all. A private cloud is a connection of private circuits connecting to private networks in the cloud data centers. The purpose for this is the security and redundancy aspect. In my eyes, the private cloud is another name for the greener wide area network. It is greener because it utilizes virtual machines like VMWare, and virtual LANs, but not green enough as it requires a total seperation and the sharing of resources is degraded considerably.
Why the private cloud? Some say it is because of security, which is often less secure than the public cloud. The other is the misconception that federal regulations require that all agencies in the federal government must have a clear deliniating line between each other. People take this a bit far and think that means you need a 2 mile trench between you and your neighbor and if you are caught making smoke signals to the other team, they will place you in front of the firing line and shoot you with the squirtgun until you are wet to your underwear. I say, wear plastic undies. You are much more likely to lose data on a laptop than you are off of the servers on the public network.
The hybrid cloud is a combination of the two in which often used Internet-based resources such as email or a CRM will be used on a public cloud and the mission critical applications will be used on the private cloud.
You may be asking yourself, "didn't we try this once before with application service providers (ASP)?" Short answer is yes...and no. The time of the ASP was plagued with challenges to include:
- Software not written to be multi-tenant.
- Network bandwidths for even the highest technology companies was a T1.
- Not everyone had Internet access from home.
- Software licensing was not designed for Internet based.
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