Cloud computing is transforming the way businesses think about and leverage technology. As a result, the general understanding of cloud computing has come a long way in a short time. However, there are still many misconceptions about what cloud computing is and what it can do for businesses that adopt this game-changing computing model. In this exclusive Q&A; with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan, Rex Wang, Vice President of Product Marketing at Oracle, discusses and dispels some of the ...| By Kevin Hartig | Article Rating: |
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| June 2, 2008 12:30 PM EDT | Reads: |
206,714 |
Early Bird Special at Cloud Expo
June 2, 2008 - Cloud computing is becoming one of the next industry buzz words. It joins the ranks of terms including: grid computing, utility computing, virtualization, clustering, etc.
Cloud computing overlaps some of the concepts of distributed, grid and utility computing, however it does have its own meaning if contextually used correctly. The conceptual overlap is partly due to technology changes, usages and implementations over the years.
Trends in usage of the terms from Google searches shows Cloud Computing is a relatively new term introduced in the past year. There has also been a decline in general interest of Grid, Utility and Distributed computing.
Likely they will be around in usage for quit a while to come. But Cloud computing has become the new buzz word driven largely by marketing and service offerings from big corporate players like Google, IBM and Amazon.
| * distributed computing |
* grid computing |
* utility computing |
* cloud computing |
The term cloud computing probably comes from (at least partly) the use of a cloud image to represent the Internet or some large networked environment. We don’t care much what’s in the cloud or what goes on there except that we depend on reliably sending data to and receiving data from it. Cloud computing is now associated with a higher level abstraction of the cloud. Instead of there being data pipes, routers and servers, there are now services. The underlying hardware and software of networking is of course still there but there are now higher level service capabilities available used to build applications. Behind the services are data and compute resources. A user of the service doesn’t necessarily care about how it is implemented, what technologies are used or how it’s managed. Only that there is access to it and has a level of reliability necessary to meet the application requirements.

Launched in 2007, Cloud Expo is the world's largest Cloud Computing event.
In essence this is distributed computing. An application is built using the resource from multiple services potentially from multiple locations. At this point, typically you still need to know the endpoint to access the services rather than having the cloud provide you available resources. This is also know as Software as a Service. Behind the service interface is usually a grid of computers to provide the resources. The grid is typically hosted by one company and consists of a homogeneous environment of hardware and software making it easier to support and maintain. (note: my definition of a grid is different from the wikipedia definition, but homogeneous environments in data centers is typically what I have run across). Once you start paying for the services and the resources utilized, well that’s utility computing.
Cloud computing really is accessing resources and services needed to perform functions with dynamically changing needs. An application or service developer requests access from the cloud rather than a specific endpoint or named resource. What goes on in the cloud manages multiple infrastructures across multiple organizations and consists of one or more frameworks overlaid on top of the infrastructures tying them together. Frameworks provide mechanisms for:
- self-healing
- self monitoring
- resource registration and discovery
- service level agreement definitions
- automatic reconfiguration
The cloud is a virtualization of resources that maintains and manages itself. There are of course people resources to keep hardware, operation systems and networking in proper order. But from the perspective of a user or application developer only the cloud is referenced. The Assimilator project is a framework that executes across a heterogeneous environment in a local area network providing a local cloud environment. In the works is the addition of a network overlay to start providing an infrastructure across the Internet to help achieve the goal of true cloud computing.
Published June 2, 2008 Reads 206,714
Copyright © 2008 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.
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Kevin Hartig is Principal at Nebarti, LLC. Formerly he was CTO at i-Dot Analytics, Inc. Before that he directed and constructed projects using new software technologies and methodologies to demonstrate the feasibility of new concepts in real business applications at Sun Microsystems, Inc. He is owner and administrator of the open source Assimilator project - a platform for running distributed services in LANs and WANs.
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kirsty@wearecloud.com 07/28/10 09:59:00 AM EDT | |||
We found a great visual about cloud computing. Simple and informative, and easier on the eye than a long blog post: http://bit.ly/cZLjN3 |
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jonrgs 12/23/09 05:50:00 PM EST | |||
Great thoughts guys !! here is my take. |
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RBruklis 06/30/09 08:08:00 AM EDT | |||
Here is my definition... “A new way to deploy or virtualize IT using the internet as a method to quickly borrow/use resources (compute, storage, infrastructure, applications) and keep those resources for any given amount of time – a 'rent' vs. |
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Architect0001@Nubifer.com 11/21/08 02:38:40 AM EST | |||
Cloud Computing is a broad term. Simply searching "Cloud Computing" on Google will give you a listing of the Wikipedia page that has a great video at the bottom of the external links section. Personally, I reviewed the entire Wikipedia document and found many things that are familiar to me and our ASP businesses from past and present technology configurations. One very note-able difference however, is the concepts of mass consumption of data (text and binary), scalability, new abstraction layers, strong APIs and SOA Web Service offerings, and a proliferation of heavy attention being focused to solve new issues for Cross Domain Security imposed by the web browsers sandboxes. Single Sign On with SAML is now the standard for Cross Platform, and Cross Framework and SaaS offerings are the key to making the link work. A myriad of new computing and Identity Management scenarios are being born and enhanced every day in turn Glue-ing these powerful Cloud Based technologies, disparate networks, and application data stores into one or more unified Modals for business. Enterprise mashups and Meta data companies like Nubifer.com which is primarily a Data Rich company offering real time feed analytics of all of your inter and extra connected web applications. Regards, |
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Neil Murphy 07/08/08 05:43:20 AM EDT | |||
Isn't this just a variation on the old bureau services of many years ago? Some different approaches etc but the same principle. |
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Sam 06/05/08 05:50:01 AM EDT | |||
Hi, I surf with www.treehoo.com that uses most of its profit to plant trees and fight global warming and climate change. The service is free and on the site you can do Google searches plus more. Everyone should use it as their default homepage, I do! |
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The move to the cloud brings a number of new security challenges, but the application remains your last line of defense. Developers are extremely well-poised to perform tasks critical for securing the application – provided that certain key obstacles are overcome.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Wayne Ariola, Chief Strategy Officer at Parasoft, will explore three ways to help development bear the burden of security that the cloud places on them:
Use penetration testing r...
For half a century, the trajectory of computing has followed a "faster, smaller, cheaper" arc. In his Day 3 Lunchtime Keynote at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Tim Park, Director, Platform Strategy at Microsoft and alumnus of Nest Labs, will look at how that trajectory is both accelerating and changing course as computing begins to infuse many of the everyday items in our lives. He will walk through the hard problems you need to think about when deploying devices and services for the Intern...
A day in the life of the future. In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Lanlogic’s Joe Foos will show how your entire organization can:
Achieve Seamless Communication – voice, video, email and messaging … without playing tag
Enjoy Real Collaboration – meet, work, and share … anytime, anywhere
Enable Unlimited Potential – your cloud will never run out of space, power, or capability
See exactly how the California Strawberry Commission and thousands of other organizations global...
Nowadays, a large number of sensors and devices are connected to the Internet. Leading-edge M2M technologies integrate various types of sensor data to create a new value for several business decision scenarios.
The transparent cloud is a model of a new M2M emergence integration service platform in which many service providers store and access various types of sensor data in order to create and find out new business values by integrating such data.
In their session at the 13th International C...
Many organizations are realizing the benefits that come with moving data to the cloud, including faster implementation, elasticity and reduced costs. But the path to the cloud isn’t always smooth. Finding the right cloud service provider takes research, and data security is always a primary concern, especially for organizations that are regulated by privacy laws.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Steve Pate, CTO & Co-Founder of HighCloud Security, will speak to the safest w...
ProfitBricks, the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) company that completely reengineered the delivery of Cloud Computing, is speaking, sponsoring and exhibiting at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley, the 13th International Cloud Expo conference. Pete Johnson, senior director of cloud platform evangelism at ProfitBricks, will discuss the evolution of cloud and the needed flexibility that Cloud Computing 2.0 offers.
ProfitBricks – the IaaS price/performance leader who introduced Cloud Computing 2.0 – of...
Best effort networks aren’t good enough for today’s mission-critical cloud-based applications. To ensure optimal performance, developers and IT managers must have a holistic view and understanding of all the factors impacting performance.
In her session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Pascale Vicat-Blanc, founder and CEO of Lyatiss, will explain how Application Defined Networking (ADN) provides this visibility and insight, delivering combined application and network awareness, and perfo...
Lunarline, one of the U.S. government's leading cyber security and privacy providers, announced on Thursday that Spence Witten, Lunarline director of federal sales, will speak about successfully navigating FedRAMP during the Cloud Expo 2013 Silicon Valley (@CloudExpo) in Santa Clara, CA.
With more than 10 years of private and government sales experience, Witten can sell ice to polar bears. But more importantly, he knows a thing or two about FedRAMP – the Federal Risk and Authorization Managemen...
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