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It’s a phrase everyone loves to toss around - but no one can clearly state its universal definition.
That’s because there isn’t one.
Cloud computing is - in fact - without definition.
Sure countless IT groups, blogs, and articles have tried to tackle a cloud computing definition - but in the end they were unsuccessful.
The one thing the IT industry can agree on is the group of characteristics that make up cloud solutions.
Dustin Amrhein of Ulitzer recently offered up his top five cloud computing characteristics - and I think you will agree that they fit the bill perfectly.
- Shared, virtualized infrastructure: At the heart of cloud computing is one of its key technological enablers, virtualization. Virtualization provides a path to share pools of IT resources such as servers, storage, data, and more. By virtualizing and sharing such resources, higher utilization rates can be realized. Effectively, more can be done with less, or more can be done with existing resources.
- Self-service access: Cloud computing solutions should enable self-service capabilities to their users. The days of human-driven resource provisioning requests are replaced by some type of portal, usually web-based, that allows authorized users to directly access compute resources based on their need.
- Elastic resource pools: Whether cloud computing concepts are being applied to a set of servers, blocks of storage, or shards of data, the resource pool should be elastic. This means that as more resource is needed, the system provisions more from the pool to ensure demand is met. Conversely, and just as importantly, when a resource is no longer needed it should be returned to the pool. This dynamic growth and contraction should be carried out autonomically based on parameters defined by users of the cloud.
- Consumable output: Once the resources are provisioned by the cloud, they should be as close to “ready-to-go” as possible. Configuration, tuning, and integration should be handled by the cloud computing solution where possible allowing users to derive immediate value from the provisioned components.
- User-based usage tracking: This feature is really a need created by the first characteristic mentioned. If the cloud is offering up shared resource pools, it is necessary to understand who is using those resources and how much they are using. Cloud computing solutions should provide a way to allocate usage of its resources to a particular user or group of users in order to facilitate chargeback within a business.
In our minds, we know what cloud computing does and how useful it is - so isn’t it time that we recognize these characteristics and put a definition together?
Quick - someone contact Merriam-Webster.
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NIST Cloud Computing Definition Revisited - Home - Kent Langley’s … - Note 1: Cloud computing is still an evolving paradigm. Its definitions, use cases, underlying technologies, issues, risks, and benefits will be refined in a spirited debate by the public and private sectors. … Cloud Computing for Bloggers: Blogging On The Cloud | Blogging … - Providing the Essentials for Developing and Maintaining an Active Blog. Business intelligence and cloud computing news for 2009-07-12 - a … - Business intelligence and cloud computing news for 2009-07-12. July 12, 2009. Google’s Chrome Operating System: A Revolution in the Making? http://bit.ly/1NWxIK · Business Intelligence Mashup Maturity Model? Oxymoron? … History of Cloud Computing; Four Tier (Cloud) Computing … - Harvesting Cloud Computing benefits will require the guidance and direction of (smart) systems integrator. http://www.perotsystems.com/MediaRoom/Library/WhitePapers/Cloud_Computing. |
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