I agree wholeheartedly with Lori MacVittie's Get Your SaaS off my Cloud post at Virtualization Journal. Of course, it doesn't matter – we're stuck with all things cloud. And more to come. The recent McKinsey report on cloud computing that stirred things up a bit mentions that there are over 22 definitions of cloud computing in circulation, highlights that we need to "get a fix" on this (i.e. agree on one definition), and then (get this) creates their own definition. Now there are over 23 defnitions of cloud computing in circulation.
Lori highlights the NIST definition:
computing is a pay-per-use model for enabling available, convenient,
on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing
resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, services)
that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management
effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes
availability and is comprised of five key characteristics, three delivery models, and four deployment models.
In other words, it's a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. I don't know about you, but the notion that there are five of one thing, three of another, and four of something else seems like it is trying to characterize the universe. An interesting exercise, but not particularly useful in every day life.
And I have to say that I really, really HATE the idea that the "pay-per-use model" is considered some sort of seminal part of all this…
Anyway, thought I'd pony up and be number 24 with my own definition of the cloud:
The Cloud is an amoeba-like alien that terrorizes the small community of Internet, Earth. It is an amorphous creature from outer space that lands on Earth encased in marketing and PR. It proceeds to consume whole people, towns, and social networks. It engulfs anyone at will – including characteristics, delivery models and deployment models – and has only one known weakness – fad-onite – and one known enemy – the pet rock.
I feel better now.
To me cloud is a new way of thinking about how to design and deploy your applications and services. We already have utility computing today which lets you optimally manage your conventional workloads, move your checkers around the data center easily based on power, load, for consolidation etc. Cloud brings it to a whole new level. Clould != virtualization however, you can use virtualization to implement your cloud services. My guess is as cloud matures the difference between utility computing and true service based computing will become more clear
I certainly agree there is a lot of things claiming to be “cloud,” that really aren’t.
Can you elaborate as to why you hate the “pay per use,” portion of the definition? To me, it seems that the costs of provisioning for load peaks (whether daily peaks or annual peaks) is a major cost of any site at scale, and simply by aggregating onto a common platform the sum of the peaks is less than the peaks of the sums (which is a common benefit of virtualization).
My definition of “enterprise” cloud:
* Network delivered
* Scalable (typically in multiple dimensions, such IO transactions/second and capacity)
* Single image, multi-tenant
* SLA backed
* Abstraction layer/API encompasses the hardware (provisioning), running systems, billing, and metering
* No up front capital
* Users of the cloud benefit from, and are insulated against the negative aspects of underlying technology change (no more server migration projects!)
* The platform gets better for everyone as users are added (as opposed to storage networks, for example)
* Allows for running your application on a platform that is far better than could be economically developed in house
Disclaimer: I’m with Zetta, an enterprise storage service provider, typically described as “cloud.”
@Jeff -
“Can you elaborate as to why you hate the “pay per use,” portion of the definition?”
Yes, mostly because my position is that cloud should focus on technical architecture and ppu is a pricing model. If the “cloud” thrives (which I am not convinced it will) then demand will go up, scalability will take over, and all the providers will convert to a subscription service (people like ppu when they are dabbling and subscription when they become heavy users).
So I see it as limiting* and unnecessary.
*This might seem strange since I am railing on the all-encompassing nature of the cloud, but at this stage the buzz is too strong and the cloud has lost all meaning.
Fantastic work!.
I am from Islands and bad know English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “Acts should be trained on genre before pushing up the genre to your version.”
Thank you so much for your future answers
. Tucker.