Cloud Computing - confusion on what it is!

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Driven by another recent thread, I thought it would be worth clarifying what exactly cloud computing is.

First, what it isn't is every online application or service (SAAS or Software As A Service), website etc.

What it is, is a flexible online "computing".

If you have a new website that could create a lot of traffic and put it on a standard server, you are restricted by the specifications of that server i.e. RAM, processing power, storage. Therefore, is you get a high demand or usage, the site could fall over if any of those are used at peak, meaning that you may have to physically upgrade the hardware or move servers.

Cloud compluting allows you to adjust each of these paramaters at the 'flick of a switch' or even automatically, as and when demand requires. It is, in simple terms, removing the physical hardware from that of a server to group of servers which are 'in the cloud' i.e. out there, in the internet, somewhere.

For further reading, the Wikipedia explination here.

What all businesses need to be careful of is companies selling them cloud computing or cloud hosting, where as, in fact, one way or another, everyting on the web is 'in the cloud', and all that is needed is standard hosting.

In reality few companies really need to be using Cloud Computing, however, if you are developing and launching the next big thing, you may need this capacity (sorry, 99% of webstores, forums, communities, etc, will probably never need to jump from normal servers to the cloud).

Do you techies think I have got this right? (light touch paper and stand back......)

 

[DuaneJackson]

You brave, brave man!

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Lol!

Go on, say more!!!!

 

[Jeff FV]

Go out & buy yourself a copy of today's Guardian - it has a good supplement explaining/discussing 'The Cloud' (I'm sure you could find a copy in 'the cloud' but I still enjoy reading from good old paper print)

Jeff

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Really!

I can assure everyone that I am not a Guardian reader, so have not seen this - how wrong does it say I am?

 

[Jeff FV]

It doesn't say your wrong. Its just a useful supplement - about 8 pages - that discusses the cloud.

I didn't necessarily mean for you (consultant) to go out & buy a copy, but anyone reading this thread who wanted to know more about the cloud.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Jeff,

great, I was just about to run to the shops........

Now I can stay here and lurk the forums some more!

Cant find it oinline, btw, but that may be because it is a paid for supplement.

 

[KM-Tiger]

From my perch up here in the cloud(s):

Like all good new buzz words, 'cloud computing' is going to get misunderstood and misused. The old fashioned terms like virtualisation, high availability and load balancing are not nearly as sexy.

I've certainly seen an increase in demand for IT services for businesses being internet based rather than office based. I think it's to do with companies becoming more 'virtual', people working from home or wherever. And that might be services bought from others, or a custom server/application.

There is also simple cost effectiveness: it's cheaper to rent a server 'in the cloud', than it is to rent a leased line to make data held on the office server accessible at a reasonable speed.

 

[kate1]

Our product is "in the clouds"

When Im doing sales, its very hard to get across the concept of how our product works, people are quite blown away by what we are able to do with their data.

I think its the future though.

 

[Kozmos]

Must say i'm not a fan of the term.. it's just distributed computing really

 

[kate1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae_DKNwK_ms

This explains it very well