I hear some people say, "Cloud computing, it’s just a new buzzword for Internet servers, no?" - Wrong! The Internet, of course, is an important element of cloud computing, but cloud computing is much more than that. You can compare the Internet with the electrical distribution grid connecting all businesses and homes, but without the power plants, you cannot deliver energy (or, in the cloud computing scenario, a service) to the many connected businesses and homes.
This is an easy to work with metaphor, one can compare cloud computing with these power plants. Power plants provide you with ‘electricity as a service’, cloud computing, in turn, provides you with IT as a Service. The Internet, in turn, acts as a distribution grid. This concept is eloquently described by Nick Carr in his book ‘The Big Switch’.
To build such an ‘IT’ power plant, it takes more than just staging a set of servers into a datacenter somewhere around the globe. In fact, the metaphor of a power plant provides many convenient analogies for comparison to cloud computing. Both must be scalable and flexible so that they can respond to peaks in demand which evolve rapidly. The users of both demand little or no up-front investment, they wish to simply connect and begin using the infrastructure, billed on the basis of usage, paying monthly fees which may vary depending on the consumption pattern and engagements.
During the Industrial revolution power plants and distribution systems were competitive differentiators; the more power you had, the more machines you could run, and the more you could produce. Today, these power systems and distribution systems are just a commodity for most companies. The same transition is well on its way in IT as well, and is especially visible in cloud computing. Computing resources are becoming commodities, with the Internet assuring transparent and universal delivery of these resources to businesses and homes.
Some companies may indeed still generate power in some small way - typically as backup in the event of outages or as part of a co-generation setup, but you will find little argument that mainstream power requirements are best met by the electric utility. ‘The Big Switch’ argues that computing is on a similar trajectory.
Another fundamental requirement to build a cloud computing service is the existence of a platform. A platform which allows you to provide, automate, provision and bill in real time the services you will offer on to the market. This platform must be able to support multiple technologies, offer them as a ‘service catalog’ and provision these service in real-time to its users, offering them elasticity and flexibility to scale up and down with their requirements. The platform should be able to support different contract and billing options, such as a flat subscription based model and a ‘usage based’ model.
Such platforms should also allow interconnection between them, much in the same way the distribution grids and power plants today, across countries, deliver electricity to each other in order to cope with peaks and cover maintenance windows. Cloud service providers find themselves in the same place, having to interconnect with each other in order to deliver the necessary peak capacity their users might require and orchestrate introduction of cross-service offerings to the market.
These requirements, in turn, necessitate the existence of a powerful business and automation platform. Such a platform is the only mandatory element in order to survive in the ‘cloud computing’ industry. Without such a platform, all the infrastructure elements of cloud computing are commodities. Without such a platform, you are not going to survive in the marketplace. Imagine, for instance, an electricity supplier without a platform to measure the load on the grid, the production capacity of the plants, without an automated billing system - even if power generation and distribution elements are in place, without a platform through which to monitor, provision, and bill for those services - the entire ecosystem collapses.
That’s why, over the last few years, we have invested heavily in our CloudFactory, serving as the true heart of a vibrant cloud computing marketplace offering, and allowing us to provide real value. And with the recent introduction of initiatives such as CloudFoundry by major vendors, in this case VMWare, its encouraging to see that the industry as a whole is beginning to agree with our vision.
This is an easy to work with metaphor, one can compare cloud computing with these power plants. Power plants provide you with ‘electricity as a service’, cloud computing, in turn, provides you with IT as a Service. The Internet, in turn, acts as a distribution grid. This concept is eloquently described by Nick Carr in his book ‘The Big Switch’.
To build such an ‘IT’ power plant, it takes more than just staging a set of servers into a datacenter somewhere around the globe. In fact, the metaphor of a power plant provides many convenient analogies for comparison to cloud computing. Both must be scalable and flexible so that they can respond to peaks in demand which evolve rapidly. The users of both demand little or no up-front investment, they wish to simply connect and begin using the infrastructure, billed on the basis of usage, paying monthly fees which may vary depending on the consumption pattern and engagements.
During the Industrial revolution power plants and distribution systems were competitive differentiators; the more power you had, the more machines you could run, and the more you could produce. Today, these power systems and distribution systems are just a commodity for most companies. The same transition is well on its way in IT as well, and is especially visible in cloud computing. Computing resources are becoming commodities, with the Internet assuring transparent and universal delivery of these resources to businesses and homes.
Some companies may indeed still generate power in some small way - typically as backup in the event of outages or as part of a co-generation setup, but you will find little argument that mainstream power requirements are best met by the electric utility. ‘The Big Switch’ argues that computing is on a similar trajectory.
Another fundamental requirement to build a cloud computing service is the existence of a platform. A platform which allows you to provide, automate, provision and bill in real time the services you will offer on to the market. This platform must be able to support multiple technologies, offer them as a ‘service catalog’ and provision these service in real-time to its users, offering them elasticity and flexibility to scale up and down with their requirements. The platform should be able to support different contract and billing options, such as a flat subscription based model and a ‘usage based’ model.
Such platforms should also allow interconnection between them, much in the same way the distribution grids and power plants today, across countries, deliver electricity to each other in order to cope with peaks and cover maintenance windows. Cloud service providers find themselves in the same place, having to interconnect with each other in order to deliver the necessary peak capacity their users might require and orchestrate introduction of cross-service offerings to the market.
These requirements, in turn, necessitate the existence of a powerful business and automation platform. Such a platform is the only mandatory element in order to survive in the ‘cloud computing’ industry. Without such a platform, all the infrastructure elements of cloud computing are commodities. Without such a platform, you are not going to survive in the marketplace. Imagine, for instance, an electricity supplier without a platform to measure the load on the grid, the production capacity of the plants, without an automated billing system - even if power generation and distribution elements are in place, without a platform through which to monitor, provision, and bill for those services - the entire ecosystem collapses.
That’s why, over the last few years, we have invested heavily in our CloudFactory, serving as the true heart of a vibrant cloud computing marketplace offering, and allowing us to provide real value. And with the recent introduction of initiatives such as CloudFoundry by major vendors, in this case VMWare, its encouraging to see that the industry as a whole is beginning to agree with our vision.
