Integration Watch: Dispelling the cloud hype
October 1, 2009 —
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If you’re to believe the hype, you’re already behind the curve if your organization is not actively deploying apps on the cloud. At the recent VMworld tradeshow sponsored by VMware, the theme of the show and its numerous sessions was cloud computing. Many presentations and vendors took the curious position that the leap from virtualization to the cloud is a small one. And vendors that did not exist 18 months ago were holding forth on the benefits and challenges of cloud computing. I haven’t seen this much hype about a technology that enables you to do what you’re already doing since the days when SaaS was the new hot thing.
Experience tells me that one symptom of insubstantial realities is the presence of multiple definitions of the core concept. You’ll recall the original cloud image referred to a large, non-specific network of systems, such as the Internet or private networks. In this model, computing takes place on some machine without you knowing exactly which. The term referred initially to external clouds, that is, ones outside the firewall.
But confusion soon arose around this usage. Some described it as something akin to Amazon’s EC2, others to SaaS. However, it was clear either way: This model was not likely to capture enterprise attention on a large scale (a view proven correct by the small size of the SaaS market despite years of aggressive marketing and the still very experimental view of Amazon’s services). So, the term migrated inside the firewall, where it remains today. For most purposes, cloud computing refers to this private cloud concept.
The difficulty with cloud computing defined this way is that it lacks for compelling use cases. There are some, which I’ll get into shortly, but they are not the kind that are going to lead data centers in large numbers to build clouds for existing needs.
The private cloud makes brilliant sense for the management of transient systems. These are systems that are used for product development, testing (especially!), research projects, temporary deployment of non-mission-critical applications, and the like. Their needs are well served by a large pool of hardware in which virtual machines can be configured quickly, run, saved if necessary, and torn down when they’re no longer needed.
Related Search Term(s): cloud computing, virtualization
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