Cloud Computing: The Perfect Storm By Gail Dutton published: Monday, March 03 2008
If your head is in a cloud,
rejoice! You're at the leading edge of a computing storm that has the potential
to blow away computing as we know it.
The "cloud" in cloud computing is
actualy a massive utility platform composed of an enormous network of servers.
In this environment, users - whether systems developers or end users - select the
applications they need and are connected to them without any need to be aware
of the underlying infrastructure. Cloud computing is similar to grid computing,
except that in a cloud environment, the resources are managed as one entity,
while grid clusters are managed individually. As IBM explains, "Cloud computing lets data
centers operate more like the Internet, enabling computing across a
distributed, globally accessible fabric of resources rather than on local
machines or server farms."
Clouds AppearingIf that explanation seems
amorphous, there's good reason. "The term is still taking shape," notes Bert
Armijo, senior vice president of sales and product management at 3Tera . The key
element is that users give up some degree of control in exchange for increased
computing power, scalability and access to certain applications they may not otherwise
have. "The companies engaged in this tend to be very large," he says.
eBay, for example, has embraced
cloud computing to enhance the agility of its IT department. Nimbleness is
particularly important, because eBay adds about 6 million listings per day and
hosts 520,000 stores worldwide. Its listings are searched 3,800 times per
second. It built its own computing cloud in a move to provide nearly infinite
scalability while managing its network on a single system.
Management tools to support this
are continually evolving in a way that negates downtime, thereby improving
productivity, equipment utilization and lowering operational costs. As part of
the development, eBay launched what it bills as one of the world' largest Web
services development platforms that includes SOA that helps projects move
through their lifespans, from short-term applications through full-scale
roll-outs.
Accessible for Small FirmsGoogle, MySpace, FaceBook, IBM, Amazon and
other computationally intensive companies have developed clouds for their own
use and employed them to great effect. Now some of these companies are
beginning to commercialize those resources. Consequently, cloud computing is
becoming accessible for even small companies, and will become increasingly
prevalent as the skills needed to manage
applications in a cloud environment become more widely understood.
That's the same type of change
manufacturers underwent in the early 20th century. Initially, many
had to be vertically integrated simply to obtain the goods and services needed
to manufacture their products and maintain their workforces. Ford Motor
Company, for example, built its own steel mill, and many companies built their
own power plants. Eventually, as the infrastructure technology became more
broadly understood, more widely applicable and more desirable, third parties emerged
to handle the infrastructure issues, which then became broadly available.
Everyone benefited through the economics of scale, and manufacturers could then
concentrate on their core businesses. Similar economies of scale are
anticipated with cloud computing.
IBM launched its Blue Cloud computing concept
last November , based on its earlier Web 2.0 work. At a demo in Shanghai last
fall, it showed how cloud computing could be used to dynamically provision and
allocate resources as application workloads fluctuate. The goal, according to
Dennis Quan, chief technology officer, "is allow next generation centers to
power out their data centers. The first product, due out this spring, will be a
blade center using Power and x86 processors."
ApplicationsCloud computing, Quan says, is
driven by space constraints within the data center and ever- increasing energy
costs, coupled with the need for companies to continue to grow. Blue Cloud,
therefore, has the high levels of automation needed to run large scale
operations. "We've invested in automation and put in provisioning system that
lets you deploy resources, sometimes, within minutes. All machines are fully
virtualized, functioning in a virtualized environment, using templates," so
deployment is merely a matter of copying a machine image to a virtual server.
Blue Cloud's goal, Quan says, is to make cloud computing applicable to
customers of all sizes, worldwide.
Initially, "Blue Cloud will help
our customers quickly establish a cloud computing environment to test and
prototype Web 2.0 applications within their enterprise environment, " according
to Rod Adkins, senior vice president, development and manufacturing or IBM
Systems & Technology Group, speaking at the Shanghai demonstration. "Over time," he
continues, "this approach could help IT managers dramatically reduce the
complexities and costs of managing scale-out infrastructures whose demands
fluctuate." Importantly, Blue Cloud integrates with existing IT infrastructure
through SOA-based Web services. Later this year, IBM plans to launch a
mainframe cloud environment, called System z.
3Tera took a different approach.
Rather than build its own cloud environment from scratch, it aggregates the
existing knowledge and infrastructure, and provides an interface to let its
customers-typically hosting providers-layer applications atop it. "Scalability
is easy," Armijo says, so "going from 2 servers to 200 and back to 2 is no big
deal."
That the type of scalability and
ease of use that 3Tera's customers prize. One, a search engine company, wants
to run its service without managing the hardware, Armijo says. "They want to
focus on their custom code," rather than expend resources on the
infrastructure. Cloud computing, which is virtualized, lets that happen.
Amazon's EC2 is one of the largest
commercial applications of cloud computing. Located within Amazon's Web Services
offering, "EC2 is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the
cloud...to make web-scale computing easier for developers," according to Amazon
spokesperson Kay Kinton. "It has a simple web service interface that lets users
obtain and configure capacity with minimal friction," and completely control
their computing resources even though those resources run on Amazon's computing
environment.
For systems administrations, this
"reduces the time required to obtain and boot new server instances to minutes,"
Kinton says, thus allowing rapid scaling as computing needs change and "freeing
developers from the heavy-lifting typically associated with launching and
growing a successful Web business." Because Amazon EC2 is completely controlled
through web service API, developers can respond instantly. "There's no need to
contact humans, schedule time and plan ahead," to meet spikes in traffic or
demand, Kinton says. That's possible, she explains, because clients aren't
limited to a fixed number of resources for a fixed timeframe, so they can
control the number of resources in use at any given time. Like many cloud
services, users pay only for the capacity they actually use.
Instant AccessFrom the users' perspective, cloud
computing gives them access to the network from any connected device. That
capability already has transformed public safety in Mississippi by
consolidating information and providing a single access point for the
information needed by law enforcement and other first responders. "That's the
core of Homeland Security - local agencies sharing information," Julian Allen,
associate vice president for research and economic development at the
University of Southern Mississippi, notes.
As Allen explains, a law
enforcement officer pulling over a car for a traffic violation typically checks
the car and driver against arrest warrants.
Before the Mississippi Automated System Project (MASP) was implemented,
the officer could only check warrants issued within his or her own county -
information wasn't linked and parts of it wasn't even computerized. Now, thanks
to MASP, when an officer checks for outstanding warrants, data is returned from
all counties that participate in the program. It currently handles arrest
warrants, criminal data, mug shots and call histories, as well as computer
aided dispatch, records management, fire management and jail management systems
and is connected to mobile computers in responders' vehicles. And, it does it
without relying upon periodic updates from 30 different agencies. Instead, the
databases on arrest warrants, for example, appear to the user to be one
database although, as far as each agency is concerned, it owns and controls its
own database.
The infrastructure that makes it
possible to share data among agencies as one database is invisible to the
thirty agencies using it, but it is based on Sun's Secure Global Desktop
software, Windows and Linux operating systems and VMware ESX Server sharing
application and x86 hardware. What the agencies do see is instant access to
critical information, increased productivity, and the economies of scale that
result from sharing the infrastructure. And, because the network is
administered by one group - the University of Southern Mississippi - rather
than by individual agencies, the system is always current and any compatibility
issues that otherwise could occur are averted. "This is a model for rural
America," Allen says.
Disruptive Technology
"The idea of owning one's own data
center is transitioning to one of using remote data centers," according to
Chuck Hollis, chief technology officer for cloud marketing at EMC "That's a
very disruptive concept." Trusting others with your information and
infrastructure is contrary to the traditional IT paradigm. And, he adds,
there's the fear of automating one's job out of existence.
Under cloud computing, Armijo explains, "one
system administrator can run hundreds of computers." That can reduce labor by
50 to 80 percent. Consultants admit that cloud computing could eliminate jobs
out of corporate data centers, but say
they would shift to third party data centers. Furthermore, they say,
opportunities will emerge elsewhere in the value chain, among cloud computing
centers, hosting services and applications developers. Hollis likens this to what has happened
elsewhere in corporations -- in human resources and accounting departments, for
example. Although some operations were outsourced, the fields have continued to
grow. "The job doesn't change," Hollis says. "How you do it changes."
Industry is gravitating towards
cloud computing, initially, because it's a less expensive solution. "The real
value, though, is that it's flexible and offers fast reaction times when
situations change," Hollis says. The other benefit is that it unleashes
creativity. "That is core to the value proposition. It gets you out of thinking
about hardware, and frees staff for more creative endeavors." Right now, "Lots
of creative people are tied up in mundane tasks," he adds.
Cloud computing, clearly, is a
paradigm shift. "Till now, we've taken it for granted that to own the data you
needed to own the computer," Armijo says. Under cloud computing, you own the
data, but it and the computing cycles may reside elsewhere. "So, how can you
take advantage of this and let people focus on the applications, security,
customer satisfaction, new product development," and other aspects of
operations that are central to the business?
"At
EMC, we believe cloud computing needs to be wrapped with other value-added services,
like security, backup integration with existing services, a help desk, etc."
Hollis continues. He, therefore, sees close ties with hosting systems that
provide software as a service (SaaS) in a cloud environment. "Service -oriented
architecture (SOA) is another way," he says. Hollis' advice? "Focus on the core
business, and if somebody else can do (ancillary operations) better, faster,
and cheaper, let them."
Related Links:
IBM , Blue Cloud Computing Concept , 3 Tera , Amazon EC2
Gail Dutton is a veteran business and technology writer. She can be reached
at gaildutton@gmail.com.
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