Cloud computing
Cloud computing is a computing paradigm shift where computing is moved away from personal computers or an individual server to a “cloud” of computers. Users of the cloud only need to be concerned with the computing service being asked for, as the underlying details of how it’s achieved are hidden. This method of distributed computing is done through pooling all computer resources together and being managed by software rather than a human.
The services being requested of a cloud are not limited to using web applications, but can also be IT management tasks such as requesting of systems, a software stack or a specific web appliance.
This simplifies IT management as well as increases efficiencies of system resources. IT administrators no longer need to install software and manually setup all the systems, but instead they have management software do this. Resources are used more efficiently as computers can be consolidated to be used for more tasks. This ensures underutilized systems do not sit idle.
Architecture
The architecture behind cloud computing is a massive network of "cloud servers" interconnected as if in a grid running in parallel, sometimes using the technique of virtualization to maximize computing power per server.
It is made up of a front-end interface which allows a user to select a service from a catalog. This request gets passed to the system management which finds the correct resources, and then calls the provisioning services which carves out resources in the cloud. The provisioning service may deploy the requested stack or web application as well.
User Interaction Interface: This is how users of the cloud interface with the cloud to request services.
Services Catalog: This is the list of services which a user could request.
System Management: This is the piece which manages the computer resources available.
Provisioning Tool: This tool carves out the systems from the cloud to deliver on the requested service. It may also deploy the required images.
Monitoring & Metering: This optional piece tracks the usage of the cloud so the resources used can be attributed to a certain user.
Servers: The servers get managed by the system management tool. They can be either virtual or real.
See also
References
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- Gilder, George. "The Information Factories". Wired Magazine.
- Bogatin, Donna (August 23, 2006). "Google CEO's new paradigm: 'cloud computing and advertising go hand-in-hand'". ZDNet.
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(help) - Markoff, John (August 24, 2007). "Why Can't We Compute in the Cloud?". The New York Times.
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(help) - Hand, Eric (October 24, 2007). "Head in the clouds". Nature Magazine.
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(help) - Dada, Kamil (October 15, 2007). "Stanford University's Kamil Dada joins Google and IBM for a partnership on cloud computing". Stanford Daily.
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(help) - Ackerman, Elise (October 9, 2007). "Google, IBM forge computing program". San Jose Mercury News.
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(help) - Gross, Grant (October 9, 2007). "Google, IBM Promote Cloud Computing". PC World.
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(help) - Morgan, Timothy Prickett (October 8, 2007). "Google, IBM Partner on Utility Computing Cloud". IT Jungle.
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External links
- Amazon EC2 - Elastic Compute Cloud
- Consumer cloud computing - Box.net, Amazon, EMC, Google
- Enomalism- Elastic Computing Platform (Open Source LGPL)
- Zimdesk: Complete Cloud Computing System
- KnowledgeTreeLive: Cloud-based Open Source Document Management
- Dell Cloud Computing Solutions.
- IGT Cloud Computing Info.