What is Cloud?

[Forsaken]

Clould is only the most amazing hero of all time.

Tidus > Cloud.

 

[Fred Sherman]

The real truth?

"The Cloud" was a strategy for large companies to monetize excess IT capacity that they purchases as a result of bad purchasing practices that were freed up once they adopted consolidation and virtualization. That was the genesis of cloud computing.

I just completed a multi-year project for a client. We virtualized servers - mostly VMware and Red Hat, but also some IBM AIX servers where we deployed dLPAR and VIO with NPIV. On the storage side, we deployed an EMC VPLEX and Data Domains (VTL). We closed several small data centers and migrated operations to only three strategic data centers. we ended all outside disaster recovery contracts (i.e. Sun Guard) and brought it all in-house.

After doing all this work, the CTO told me that his next project was to develop a private cloud. I was completely floored. Like everyone else, he had bought into the buzz words without understanding what the technology really means.

I pulled out my laptop, logged into EMC control center and provisioned 45 GB of Tier 2 storage for the OS, 2 TB of Tier 1 storage for data, and 8 3592 virtual tapes. Then a logged onto vCenter and provisioned a new Linux server with the standard build.

Within minutes, the server was built from the RHEL Satellite server, complete with all software, all assigned storage and the virtual tapes for backup.

Then I turned to him and said, "Check that one off your list. Its down now."

His budget for the project was $7 million. We received 15% of it as an "over-performed" bonus.

 

[Jake Bunce]

...

After doing all this work, the CTO told me that his next project was to develop a private cloud. I was completely floored. Like everyone else, he had bought into the buzz words without understanding what the technology really means.

...

The concept of the private cloud is highly paradoxical as a function of the ignorance which defines the cloud. I made a post on my forum about the definition of private clouds:

Here is another strange one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing#Private_cloud

Private cloud

Private cloud and internal cloud are neologisms that some vendors have recently used to describe offerings that emulate cloud computing on private networks. These (typically virtualisation automation) products claim to "deliver some benefits of cloud computing without the pitfalls", capitalising on data security, corporate governance, and reliability concerns. They have been criticized on the basis that users "still have to buy, build, and manage them" and as such do not benefit from lower up-front capital costs and less hands-on management[56], essentially "[lacking] the economic model that makes cloud computing such an intriguing concept".[58][59]

This is a highly strange concept... the idea that the definition of a thing depends on the perspective from which that thing is being viewed. This definition of private clouds essentially makes the claim that the cloud ceases to be cloudy if you get too close to the underlying technology (e.g. having to physically manage a server on your intranet).

Let's think about this. Cloud services have to be managed at the hardware level somewhere along the chain. For consumers the cloud is a cloud because they are far away from the hardware. For the IT personnel managing the cloud it is not a cloud because they are too close to the hardware. So the cloud is both a cloud and not a cloud at the same time depending on your perspective.

This also supports my theory that ignorance is part of the definition of cloud computing.

 

[Jake Bunce]

Apple to introduce the iCloud:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2...confirms-ios-5-icloud-on-tap-at-wwdc-2011.ars