Cloud Organizing Concepts (Disorganized)

The following message thread occurred in the old CSix Cloud Computing Yahoo Group starting 8-28-9. The text was transferred in case anyone wants to continue the discussion here.

---

Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:49:04 -0700
To: csix-cloud@yahoogroups.com
From: Bob Sutterfield <bob@...>
Subject: Cloud organizing concepts (disorganized )

Here are some disconnected organizing concepts that have been sitting in my drafts folder for a while...

UC Berkeley RAD Lab "Above The Clouds" definition of Cloud Computing includes three primary characteristics:

• Huge Resources - The illusion of infinite computing resources available on demand, thereby eliminating the need for Cloud Computing users to plan far ahead for provisioning
• No Commitment - The elimination of an up-front commitment by Cloud users, thereby allowing companies to start small and increase hardware resources only when there is an increase in their needs
• Pay by the Drink - The ability to pay for use of computing resources on a short-term basis as needed (e.g., processors by the hour and storage by the day) and release them as needed

Some would say, if it doesn't meet these criteria, it's not Cloud.

Key benefits of each of these three characteristics:

• Huge Resources - IT agility as systems can be sized to meet demand -- as load scales, system resources are easily obtained to ensure SLAs can be met
• No Commitment - No longer face the tradeoff between overprovisioning (waste of capital) and underprovisioning (waste of users)
• Pay by the Drink - Move IT payments from CAPEX to OPEX. Pay only for actual resources consumed. Tie IT cost to business benefit received

See the taxonomy diagram on page 22 of Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing for discussion of IaaS, PaaS, SaaS layering - also the nearby discussion of features, openness, and security.

Deployment Options:

        |                  |
Public  | Virtual Private  | Public Cloud
        |    (AWS++)       |        

        |------------------+---------------------
        |                  |

        | Internal Private | External Private Cloud
Private |                  |   (outsourcing++)

        |------------------+---------------------
             Dedicated     |  Shared

Here's a good presentation on Risk and Security in the Enterprise Cloud

---

To: <csix-cloud@yahoogroups.com>
From: "Junaid Qurashi" <junaidqurashi@...>
Subject: Re: [CSix-Cloud] Cloud organizing concepts (disorganized )

Re: [CSix-Cloud] Cloud organizing concepts (disorganized )

"Some would say, if it doesn't meet these criteria, it's not a Cloud"

How does private cloud fit in this definition. Some private cloud are restricted to a defined set of resources. Or are they not a cloud?

Junaid

---

Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 22:20:42 -0700
To: csix-cloud@yahoogroups.com
From: Bob Sutterfield <bob@...>
Subject: Re: [CSix-Cloud] Cloud organizing concepts (disorganized )

Huge Resources - The illusion of infinite computing resources available on demand, thereby eliminating the need for Cloud Computing users to plan far ahead for provisioning

Junaid Qurashi wrote:

How does private cloud fit in this definition. Some private cloud are restricted to a defined set of resources. Or are they not a cloud?

From the private cloud's users' perspective, any resources they want are available, on demand, without planning for provisioning. They probably have a better-informed view of the limits of the private cloud than do the users of a public cloud, but still they get what they need when the ask for it, within those constraints.