What is Cloud Computing is likely one of the most frequently asked questions in IT today; and if you do not think this to be the case it is because you likely already have an opinion, or think it is hype. Well guess what, here is another opinion…
It is amazing how a paradigm shift can create a wave of marketing and spend in an industry. Some might say that only certain groups are benefiting from the concept of Cloud Computing, and that these groups are not the customers making the spend to have a Cloud Computing capability. There is definitely money to be made by the suppliers of Cloud Computing components, however I would also like to think that the consumers of Cloud Computing are likewise being enabled to do more with less – point in case AWS EC2 customers.
Cloud Computing is here, and it is new. It is not simply virtualisation ‘re marketed’. Indeed virtualisation was a disturbing influence in IT as it allowed IT to explore other ways of running infrastructure. However virtualisation is only one aspect of Cloud Computing, just like automation and the ability to scale are others. Virtualisation is only the implementation of a more effective way to make use of resources such as compute; and as you know compute is not the only virtualised resource member of Cloud Computing. The network and storage are also key contributors and given this Cloud Computing’s mission is to bring all of these resources together so they can be consumed whilst the complexity is hidden.
It is important to note that the Cloud Computing components of compute, network and storage provide us with the necessary building blocks to provide many Cloud Computing types. With virtualisation of such infrastructure we are mostly referring to the infrastructure within Clouds. Such Clouds are titled Infrastructure As A Service or IaaS delivered from the Cloud. This is at time paralleled to traditional hosting or IT operating model, which are likewise delivered to the consumers ‘As A Service’. What does the “As A Service’ portion mean and how does this differ to traditional hosting environments?
If we take a look at the evolution of the Internet work (Internet) – copper in terms of bandwidth was first, then larger transfer mediums evolved. With that the ability to virtualise the wire and create logical network services or links was necessary reality to ensure service providers could leverage infrastructure to assist with cost and to service multiple customers. The same can be applied to recent advances in compute and storage virtualisation. Logical partitioning is the only approach to make better use of the larger capacities and costly resources. However this introduced the same challenge for network service provider with the advancement of the copper wire; that is it was not good enough to hope that virtualisation technologies will ensure effective use of such resources, they needed to absorb these components into IT management and operating environments to enable aspects such as multiple customer access (otherwise known as multi-tenancy) and automation (ability to reduce manual provisioning and errors).
The same analogy of the evolution of the Internet can be applied to the evolution of compute and storage; that is we need to adopt these resources into our service provider management and operating models to allow for effective delivery and management of these services to our customers. It should also be stated that similar considerations could be applied to private networks (as opposed to public Internet) as Cloud Computing services can likewise be public or private based. It is with this understanding that we can answer the question what does the “As A Service’ mean and how does this differ to traditional hosting environments?
The concept of Cloud Computing delivering something “As A Service” versus traditional hosting models is sometimes confusing and seen to be largely equivalent. However they are not as traditional hosting models tend to be more static and one-time deployment activities for the service provider. This has an effect on the service provider of having to support multiple point solutions for many customers in turn increasing cost and reducing the ability to scale. You might argue that in some hosting environments solutions are delivered as ‘turn key’ or similar and repeatable for delivery teams. I agree this is of benefit to the service provider, however it does not assist the service provider with cost and scale; only the support of similar hosting constructs. Therefore the ‘As A Service’ aspect of Cloud Computing relates not only to the delivery to the consumer of the service, but also to the management and operations on the Cloud Computing resources by the service provider.
In consideration of this there are many aspects for Cloud Computing which require inclusion in the management and operating model for the service provider:
- The ability to define and model the offered services and bundles – not only infrastructure, but also software and platforms – click here to read more on my Cloud Service Modelling project
- The ability to abstract the service definitions and models away from resource component constraints
- The ability to offer differentiated services on a per x basis
- The ability to provide secure and multi-tenant (customer) consumption frameworks
- A higher level of operational maturity, moving towards are a more dynamic model
- The inclusion of service elasticity and auto scale, aligning demand to cost & capacity curves
- The ability to automate delivery and operational tasks such as customer self service and operational provisioning
The above list is great foundation for discussion, and I will post a discussion on each shortly.
Article Reference : – Cloud Computing News | Cloud Computing
What is the Cloud? 