To Cloud or Not to Cloud: What does "cloud computing" mean exactly?
"To Cloud or Not to Cloud" is a regular feature here in the CloudStrategies Newsletter. Each issue we'll take one specific frequently asked question about how to decide whether or not there's a strategy by which your company would benefit from the transition to cloud computing. We'll explore various answers to that question and help you do a deep-dive analysis of the right answer for you.
This issue's question is:
What does "cloud computing" mean exactly?
"Cloud" computing may end up being one of the worst choices among the many descriptive names that could have been selected.
"Utility" computing might have been better. When you think of a utility like electricity you know exactly how it works. You plug something into your electrical socket and the power is provided by the electric utility company. Simple! You obtain dialtone by plugging your phone into the walljack which connects you to the phone utility. The same is true for utility computing. Wherever you are, you can plug into the nearest Internet walljack and obtain immediate access to your company's IT network or various commercial IT services.
"Offsite", "Off-premises", "Outsourced" or even "Remote" computing would provide a better contrast to the more traditional on-premises computing infrastructure that most companies have today. The simple fact is that a company who specializes in operating a data center will naturally provide better services than a company that does something else, like yours. So you move your IT operation into somebody else's data center and let them take care of it for you.
But since the earliest representations of the Global Internet were scribbled on white boards as an indefinite cloud, somebody decided to use that metaphor which has significantly "clouded" everyone's perceptions of this excellent business strategy.
Wikipedia defines "Cloud Computing" as "Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grid."
There are four fundamental models of "cloud computing" and a brief explanation of each may help to clear away the cloudiness around computing in the cloud:
Relocating Corporate IT Assets to a Provider's Data Center
This is the most intimate model in that your company trusts a provider to house and process your valuable data assets. Your personnel have secure access to the provider's data center and can log in to that network from wherever they may currently be located. This provides tremendous flexibility and consistency of user experience, along with much better centralized control over who can access what. It also relieves your company of important routines such as data backup by transferring all of those functions to the provider.
Obtaining Software Applications from the Internet
Many companies desire the enhanced functionality of leading IT applications like Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft SharePoint, but, given the size of their user community, can't justify the expense. These powerful applications can now be obtained very cost-effectively from "the cloud." Various providers have made these and many other applications, including phone service and productivity applications, available over the Internet for a periodic fee. Users need not have a large number of employees utilizing the service to make it cost-effective, and high-availability is maintained via the redundancy of provider data centers.
Obtaining Services from the Internet
Salesforce.com is perhaps the first internet-supplied service people think of, but there are many other applications that are best delivered via a web browser, the best known of which is Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite which was just integrated into Microsoft Office365.
Developing Applications on an Internet-Based Infrastructure
Several providers offer complete development environments with various tools and other resources designed to enhance the efficiency by which teams can develop and deploy new applications without having to invest in any infrastructure of their own, such as Microsoft Azure.