All about Cloud Computing?

Introduction

Numerous surveys report that Cloud Computing will be a top 10 technology that enterprise business managers need to be aware of for 2010. Not that you can escape the marketing and information published about this latest  super hyped topic. Much of the message focuses on Cloud Computing as a lower cost delivery model for IT services. This may or may not be true.

What is Cloud Computing?

We see Cloud Computing as a computing model, not a technology. In this model “customers” plug into the “cloud” to access IT resources which are priced and provided “on-demand”. Essentially, IT resources are rented and shared among multiple tenants much as  office space, apartments, or storage spaces are used by tenants.  Delivered over an Internet connection, the “cloud” replaces the company data center or server providing the same service.  Thus, Cloud Computing is simply IT services sold and delivered over the Internet.  Refer to Page 4 for various Types of Cloud Computing.

Cloud Computing vendors combine virtualization (one computer hosting several “virtual” servers), automated provisioning (servers have software installed automatically), and Internet connectivity technologies to provide the service.  These are not new technologies but a new name applied to a collection of older (albeit updated) technologies that are packaged, sold and delivered in a new way.A key point to remember is that, at the most  basic level, your data resides on someone else’s server(s).  This means that most concerns (and there are potentially hundreds) really come down to trust and control issues.  Do you trust them with your data

What do I need to use Cloud Computing?

All that is really needed to acquire and use Cloud Computing solutions is a credit card (or other payment method) and a LAN with an Internet connection robust enough to support the Cloud delivered service. These two requirements are deceptively simple.

From a technical point of view the biggest challenge for businesses, particularly SMBs, may be the need for an appropriately robust LAN infrastructure and Internet connection. Typically, Internet access is provided by a single commercial service ISP provider through a single port on a router. A characteristic of this type installation is that all of the computers connecting through the LAN share the Internet bandwidth equally. This can quickly become an issue.

For example:  Verizon FiOS Internet 15/2 (down/up) service might have a measured speed of 14420/1867 Kbps. This would seem to be plenty of speed. However, suppose a business had 5 computers using a Cloud solution and sending data to the cloud for processing. The bandwidth available to each computer would be 373Kbps (up 1867/5). That is about 46 (8 bit) characters per second to the cloud application and does not include any communication or application data. The cloud solution might not work or responses so slow as to be unacceptable. It isn’t the download speed that becomes a limit, but he upload speed.

The on-demand nature of Cloud Computing presents a dilemma: The on-demand model includes a self-service interface that allows users to self-provision services (for example storage). This empowers users but can make services too easy to acquire and consume. To quote an IT administrator  “People could care less about policies. … They want what they want when they want it. They don’t involve IT.”

Consider the faculty member at the University of Massachusetts who quietly (without anyone’s knowledge) used a cloud service to back up 20 GB of data each night over the Internet bringing the school LAN to its knees. How management controls Cloud Computing is unique to each organization and is an IT Governance issue.