The Cloud: a leap created from combining existing technologies
By Alan Ganek, chief technology officer for IBM Software
Published: April 30 2009 15:21 | Last updated: April 30 2009 15:21
Today’s increasingly interconnected environment requires an IT infrastructure capable of handling the massive quantities of digital information being exchanged. The new IT architecture built to handle this highly interactive world is cloud computing.
At its most basic, cloud computing is an approach to a shared IT infrastructure in which large pools of computer systems are linked together to provide IT services. It offers a simplified, centralised platform that can be used as needed, thereby lowering costs and energy use.
Sometimes technology leaps ahead as the result of a specific advancement, such as the transistor. More often major leaps occur when multiple technologies are combined to create something entirely new.
Cloud computing is created by the fusion of a number of existing technologies, including virtualisation, networking, service-oriented architecture and an internet-based delivery model, known as software-as-a-service that charges customers only for actual usage.
As a result, it is creating a flexible, robust infrastructure to serve the needs of today’s economy where knowledge flows to countries and regions where IT infrastructures are reliable and responsive.
Since it accesses “virtual” resources, cloud computing is not limited by the power and capabilities of local or remote computers. Unlike grid computing, which distributes IT for a specific task, cloud computing can be applied across an entire range of activities, and used with a wide variety of devices, including laptops, smart phones and hand-held devices.
Cloud computing uses IT resources more efficiently, requiring less energy and reducing carbon emissions. According to Info-Tech Research Group, most computer servers run full time, but are used at between 10 and 20 percent of capacity. By pooling resources, cloud-computing platforms can scale up or down, saving energy and operating costs.
Some observers say that cloud computing could mean the decline of in-house data centres, but that is not the case. Rather, it allows the data centre to evolve into a more dynamic, interactive function. Cloud computing provides data centres with extreme scale, and most important, fast access to information in the data centre regardless of the type of device a person uses. This is becoming crucial as many new types of mobile devices come on to the market.
Today, the cloud computing platforms getting most media attention are externally hosted services; however, private cloud computing platforms are also developing especially within companies operating globally. Private cloud platforms are able to establish security protocols, which carefully monitor the levels of access to the information that is made available for exchange.
Cloud computing will continue to evolve as it responds to business and market trends as well as new technological advances. Its advantages, however, are already clear.
Cloud computing offers the ability to integrate widely diverse kinds of information, a simpler infrastructure to manage the complexity of intelligent technologies and more efficient computing power to handle massive amounts of data as it keeps costs and energy use down.
It is an IT approach that will serve the needs of our interconnected, interactive world now and in the decades to come.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Cloud computing
Cloud computing
Published: April 21 2009 09:18 | Last updated: April 22 2009 00:44
Cold reality has a habit of intruding. The latest fad to feel its chill is the concept of “the cloud”, one embraced by the technology sector. On Monday IBM listed cloud computing as one of its three key initiatives for growth. Cisco, which dominates networking equipment, has been tempted by the prospects to move into making servers. Struggling PC maker Dell, meanwhile, aims to join Amazon in providing cloud-based services.
Nailing down the cloud is difficult because its definition has been expanded to include everything companies wish to sell. But broadly, it entails a business outsourcing technology hardware to a third party and then paying according to usage. In theory, commodity services such as data storage will move into the cloud and then be piped back into the building, as with power and water. Economies of scale will mean vast savings for business and fat returns for those running the clouds.
Outsourcing may be too expensive for most large corporations, however. Research from Mckinsey suggests that moving into the cloud costs much more than staying put. Using Amazon’s web services as a guide, the estimated price per computer per month would be $366 compared with $150 for a typical corporate data centre. The study also puts labour savings at just 10-15 per cent, as Luddite employees still need the help of IT support staff. Instead, the consultants suggest virtualisation – using software to make existing racks of servers run more efficiently – is the best route to saving money.
That may miss the point. Companies are unlikely to outsource entire systems in one go. Instead the cloud allows rapid expansion or cheap testing of new projects. It provides a way to expand without capital investment, and the cost calculation will be different for each organisation. But it does suggest that investors should avoid foggy thinking about the companies vying to provide cloud services.
BACKGROUND NEWS
Cisco Systems, the world’s biggest maker of networking equipment, recently said it would start selling servers, the back-room machines that are the workhorses of corporate computing, setting up a showdown with Hewlett-Packard and IBM.
The maturing of the IT industry and a steep slide into recession provided the immediate impetus for the move. But something else is at work. After a technology era characterised by the rise of the PC, a new centralisation is taking place in computing and the biggest suppliers of technology are being forced to respond. A catchphrase has been coined to describe this new approach: “cloud computing”.
Even Microsoft, a company that came to dominate the PC era, is racing to create one of the world’s biggest computing clouds, although it insists this will co-exist with existing forms of personal computing for years to come.
The economies of scale that come from consolidating computing in fewer places, and the availability of fast internet connections that make it easy to tap into this resource, account for the shift. As a result, data centres – whether run by large companies or by internet services groups such as Google – are assuming an increased share of the world’s information processing workload.
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Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: April 21 2009 09:18 | Last updated: April 22 2009 00:44
Cold reality has a habit of intruding. The latest fad to feel its chill is the concept of “the cloud”, one embraced by the technology sector. On Monday IBM listed cloud computing as one of its three key initiatives for growth. Cisco, which dominates networking equipment, has been tempted by the prospects to move into making servers. Struggling PC maker Dell, meanwhile, aims to join Amazon in providing cloud-based services.
Nailing down the cloud is difficult because its definition has been expanded to include everything companies wish to sell. But broadly, it entails a business outsourcing technology hardware to a third party and then paying according to usage. In theory, commodity services such as data storage will move into the cloud and then be piped back into the building, as with power and water. Economies of scale will mean vast savings for business and fat returns for those running the clouds.
Outsourcing may be too expensive for most large corporations, however. Research from Mckinsey suggests that moving into the cloud costs much more than staying put. Using Amazon’s web services as a guide, the estimated price per computer per month would be $366 compared with $150 for a typical corporate data centre. The study also puts labour savings at just 10-15 per cent, as Luddite employees still need the help of IT support staff. Instead, the consultants suggest virtualisation – using software to make existing racks of servers run more efficiently – is the best route to saving money.
That may miss the point. Companies are unlikely to outsource entire systems in one go. Instead the cloud allows rapid expansion or cheap testing of new projects. It provides a way to expand without capital investment, and the cost calculation will be different for each organisation. But it does suggest that investors should avoid foggy thinking about the companies vying to provide cloud services.
BACKGROUND NEWS
Cisco Systems, the world’s biggest maker of networking equipment, recently said it would start selling servers, the back-room machines that are the workhorses of corporate computing, setting up a showdown with Hewlett-Packard and IBM.
The maturing of the IT industry and a steep slide into recession provided the immediate impetus for the move. But something else is at work. After a technology era characterised by the rise of the PC, a new centralisation is taking place in computing and the biggest suppliers of technology are being forced to respond. A catchphrase has been coined to describe this new approach: “cloud computing”.
Even Microsoft, a company that came to dominate the PC era, is racing to create one of the world’s biggest computing clouds, although it insists this will co-exist with existing forms of personal computing for years to come.
The economies of scale that come from consolidating computing in fewer places, and the availability of fast internet connections that make it easy to tap into this resource, account for the shift. As a result, data centres – whether run by large companies or by internet services groups such as Google – are assuming an increased share of the world’s information processing workload.
To e-mail the Lex team confidentially click here
OR
To post public comments click here
The Lex column is now on Twitter. To receive our daily line-up and links to Lex notes via Twitter, click here
_________________________________________
Lex is the FT’s agenda-setting column, giving an authoritative view on corporate and financial matters. It is also one of the few parts of FT.com available only to Premium subscribers. This article is provided for free as an example. A Premium subscription gives you unlimited access to all FT content, including all Lex articles and the FT mobile Newsreader.
Subscribe now
If you have questions or comments, please e-mail help@ft.com or call:
US and Canada: +1 800 628 8088
Asia: +852 2905 5555
UK, Europe and rest of the world: +44 (0)20 7775 6248
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
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