What cloud computing really means
Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends ITs existing capabilities.
Cloud computing is at an early stage, with a motley crew of providers large and small delivering a slew of cloud-based services, from full-blown applications to storage services to spam filtering. Yes, utility-style infrastructure providers are part of the mix, but so are SaaS (software as a service) providers such as Salesforce.com. Today, for the most part, IT must plug into cloud-based services individually, but cloud computing aggregators and integrators are already emerging.
InfoWorld talked to dozens of vendors, analysts, and IT customers to tease out the various components of cloud computing. Based on those discussions, heres a rough breakdown of what cloud computing is all about:
1. SaaS
This type of cloud computing delivers a single application through the browser to thousands of customers using a multitenant architecture. On the customer side, it means no upfront investment in servers or software licensing; on the provider side, with just one app to maintain, costs are low compared to conventional hosting. Salesforce.com is by far the best-known example among enterprise applications, but SaaS is also common for HR apps and has even worked its way up the food chain to ERP, with players such as Workday. And who could have predicted the sudden rise of SaaS desktop applications, such as Google Apps and Zoho Office?
2. Utility computing
The idea is not new, but this form of cloud computing is getting new life from Amazon.com, Sun, IBM, and others who now offer storage and virtual servers that IT can access on demand. Early enterprise adopters mainly use utility computing for supplemental, non-mission-critical needs, but one day, they may replace parts of the datacenter. Other providers offer solutions that help IT create virtual datacenters from commodity servers, such as 3Teras AppLogic and Cohesive Flexible Technologies Elastic Server on Demand. Liquid Computings LiquidQ offers similar capabilities, enabling IT to stitch together memory, I/O, storage, and computational capacity as a virtualized resource pool available over the network.
3. Web services in the cloud
Closely related to SaaS, Web service providers offer APIs that enable developers to exploit functionality over the Internet, rather than delivering full-blown applications. They range from providers offering discrete business services such as Strike Iron and Xignite to the full range of APIs offered by Google Maps, ADP payroll processing, the U.S. Postal Service, Bloomberg, and even conventional credit card processing services.
4. Platform as a service
Another SaaS variation, this form of cloud computing delivers development environments as a service. You build your own applications that run on the providers infrastructure and are delivered to your users via the Internet from the providers servers. Like Legos, these services are constrained by the vendors design and capabilities, so you dont get complete freedom, but you do get predictability and pre-integration. Prime examples include Salesforce.coms Force.com,Coghead and the new Google App Engine. For extremely lightweight development, cloud-basedmashup platforms abound, such as Yahoo Pipes or Dapper.net.
5. MSP (managed service providers)
One of the oldest forms of cloud computing, a managed service is basically an application exposed to IT rather than to end-users, such as a virus scanning service for e-mail or an application monitoring service (which Mercury, among others, provides). Managed security services delivered by SecureWorks, IBM, and Verizon fall into this category, as do such cloud-based anti-spam services as Postini, recently acquired by Google. Other offerings include desktop management services, such as those offered by CenterBeam or Everdream.
6. Service commerce platforms
A hybrid of SaaS and MSP, this cloud computing service offers a service hub that users interact with. Theyre most common in trading environments, such as expense management systems that allow users to order travel or secretarial services from a common platform that then coordinates the service delivery and pricing within the specifications set by the user. Think of it as an automated service bureau. Well-known examples include Rearden Commerce and Ariba.
7. Internet integration
The integration of cloud-based services is in its early days. OpSource, which mainly concerns itself with serving SaaS providers, recently introduced the OpSource Services Bus, which employs in-the-cloud integration technology from a little startup called Boomi. SaaS provider Workday recently acquired another player in this space, CapeClear, an ESB (enterprise service bus) provider that was edging toward b-to-b integration. Way ahead of its time, Grand Central which wanted to be a universal bus in the cloud to connect SaaS providers and provide integrated solutions to customers flamed out in 2005.
Differences Between Dedicated Server, Cloud Computing and VPS
Many people still do not know or are confused when speaking of the major differences between Cloud Server Hosting, Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and Dedicated Servers. Starting with the most basic, you know what to serve?
Quite simply, all the three technologies are used to store data, host websites and structures of e- mail, besides running various applications and softwares. So if they serve for the same thing because they are different?
Each has a different characteristic, let us understand :
Dedicated Servers
It is a physical machine, usually allocated on a fully equipped data center and is totally dedicated to one customer who requires high reliability and high performance hardware ( processing, memory , etc.) If the client needs more resources, you must purchase more hardware and manually install or exchange server. Its main advantage is the high performance and flexibility and its disadvantage is the high price and inability to upgrade / downgrade immediately. This is one of the best flexible solution than shared web hosting, as because the owner gets a total control over the hosting environment and every aspects of the dedicated hosting, which includes the selection of operating system, server hardware, etc Some web hosting providers may provide the server administration for free, but usually, the client has to manage the server administration and management tasks.
Cloud Server Hosting (Cloud Computing)
Already Cloud Server is a fractionation of a number of resources available to multiple servers and storage arrays. Through an intelligent architecture, you can allocate these resources allows scalability without losing performance. Besides the economy and flexibility, there are numerous advantages to this technology.
Virtual Private Servers (VPS)
It is the fractionation of resources from one physical server, this fractionation being allocated to a single client. VPS is an ideal choice for businesses that requires same flexibility, reliability, security, root access, stability, etc at much affordable rates that a dedicated server offers. In this technology there is no guarantee of processing and in case of hardware failures, client applications that depend on it will also fail, as there is integration servers like the Cloud.
We simplify the concepts so that everyone can understand, of course there are many other details, but overall this is it!
How Cloud Computing Can Be A Better Way | How is Cloud Computing Different than Traditional Applications?
In order for traditional applications to work properly, they require a data center with power, an office, cooling, servers, networks, bandwidth and storage. Even once youve met all those requirements, you need a professional to install them, configure them and make sure theyre running as they should. As much time, effort and money that goes into these programs by large businesses, you can only imagine the headache they pose for small businesses or individuals.
Cloud computing will help you run your business better and more efficiently for many reasons. Unlike many traditional business apps, applications that are cloud based can be up and running in a couple of days. Lets face it for your business to be efficient, you cant have a lot of downtime. Cloud computing will also save you money because you dont have to pay tons of money in employee wages to run your applications as well as many products to keep them running and updated. Any performance or security enhancements and upgrades your cloud based programs need, theyll get automatically.
Another way youll save with cloud computing is by not having to constantly buy software and servers. They dont take up as much of your IT resources as traditional applications.
Cloud Computing Market Will Reach $16.7 Billion by 2013
As more and more organizations starting to transition their data into the cloud and tap into web-based applications, the global cloud computing market is continuing to grow at high speed.Analyst firm 451 Market Monitor has predicted that it expects the cloud computing marketplace to reach $16.7 billion in revenue by 2013.
According to its report, the large and well-established software-as-a-service (SaaS (News - Alert)) category, cloud computing will grow from revenue of $8.7bn in 2010 to $16.7bn in 2013, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24 percent.
The research firm believes that the core cloud computing market will grow at much more rapid pace as the cloud increasingly becomes a mainstream IT strategy embraced by corporate enterprises and government agencies.
Excluding SaaS revenue, cloud-delivered platform and infrastructure services will grow from $964m in revenue in 2010 to $3.9bn 2013 - a CAGR of 60% - the report said.
The core market includes platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings, as well as the cloud-delivered software used to build and manage a cloud environment, which The 451 Group (News - Alert) calls 'software infrastructure as a service' (SIaaS).
Cloud-based storage will play a starring role in cloud growth, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the core cloud pie in 2010. "We view storage as the most fertile sector, and predict that cloud storage will experience the strongest growth in the cloud platforms segment," the report says.
In June, Gartner said worldwide cloud computing services market is poised for strong growth and its revenue might reach USD 148.8 billion by 2014.
Last month, another market analyst firm Renub Research had predicted that global cloud computing market might cross $25 billion by the end of 2013.
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