What the Hell is Cloud Computing?

Blog author: Sean McDonald (Former ICONZ CEO)
 
When new technology trends arrive, as it did with Cloud Computing in 2008, the airwave chatter is awash with commentary and before you know it, everyone rushes to claim their “market leading” position. Just like Harvey Normans or Farmers BIGGEST EVER sale, we buy the latest and greatest, hook line and sinker, every time! What strange people we are.
 
Not too far after this crescendo of activity, the doomsayers step up and charge countless thousands for ‘industry leading whitepapers’ to warn all of us of pending doom should we consider taking the leap into this new technology direction.   Both sides then counter strike over the ensuing months and years. Case studies come forth from the providers and their happy customers and yet more whitepapers flood cyberspace. The endless circle of activity continues, boring the pants off people, causing confusion and frustration. Business managers are understandably left wondering what the heck the new technology is all about and who to believe. Ah yes, the wonderful world of IT. 
 
So to the latest trend Du Jour then Batman! Cloud Computing, ah yes!. Well, it’s not that hard and in fact, it’s not that new. In reality it is almost as old as computing itself, we (the IT community) needed a new thing so we got the lipstick out and made a few changes to something old and called it something new. Heck, some companies have even named their brand and website after it. Good ol Larry Ellison of ORACLE has a few words to say about Cloud Computing,  its captures the essence of what many of us think but are sometimes to afraid to say, not our Larry though! Take it away..

So what THE HELL IS cloud computing?

Easy, it’s a whole heap of powerful servers all connected via huge networks, with as much disk, memory, and CPU as you can poke a stick at. All of this being hosted in large Data Centres (or should be) and managed 24 x 7 x 365. If it’s not, then get your running shoes on and move fast in the opposite direction.
Again, Larry has a few succinct words to say about all of this.Once again, take it away Larry...Now I am not looking to promote ORACLE but really, Larry does have a point. Cloud Computing is almost as old as computing itself.

How does it work?

Well then...and just in case you haven't heard this already....On top of all the massive server hardware hosted in the Data Centre, and before this capacity is delivered across the internet, there is a very clever 'technology set' called ‘virtualisation software’ that enables providers to slice, dice and manage this server power and capacity across their client base. Like server hardware, there are many different flavours of virtualisation software but VMware is fairly much the benchmark today, closely followed by Microsoft HyperV, XenServer, just to name a few.  Essentially then, Cloud Computing is like mainframe time sharing of old, only with 'new stuff' that makes things go faster, does more, offers more and is a whole heap cheaper than most other hosting options. Be careful though, it is not a silver bullet, there are limitations like everything and your provider should point these out to you.

CONFIGURATION

First you select all the 'go fast' bits you need for your 'virtual' of 'cloud' server, RAM, memory, CPU, software etc... . Again, your provider should be able to advise you of the specifications of your virtual servers to support the applications or websites you are looking to support. From here you can select a payment plan; e.g pay as you go, by the minute, hour, day or month.  Contract terms should also be considered as these generally offer substantial discounts whilst still giving you the flexiblity to change your computing capacity and charges from month to month. Flexibilty is the key! If you don't find this in your vendor then keep looking.

BUT WAIT, there is more...

Now then, just when you thought you reached that eureka moment, there is more to confuse you. How about a lashing of SaaS, IaaS or PaaS to go with your Cloud? Ah yes, there are ‘market leaders’ in every city for these too! 
IaaS or Infrastructure as a service is simple – raw computing power and lots of it, as and when you need it. You then load up your software on the top of this. ICONZ for example is a 'pure play' IaaS provider in New Zealand.
PaaS or Platform as a service is IaaS with some clever software (generally proprietary - watch out for vendor lock in!) that enables developers to do stuff ‘in the cloud’ and turn things into SaaS, although not always. Microsoft Azure is an example of a PaaS provider
SaaS or Software as a service is again nothing new. In the 90s this was called ASP or Application Service Provider. This is where you subscribe online to a software package without buying and loading the software on a local PC, MAC or server. There are literally thousands of these for personal and business use. SaaS providers are generally clients of IaaS or PaaS providers. Salesforce.com and Xero are two good examples of pure play SaaS providers.

i think i will wait a little longer before I take the leap! - come on now thomas...

Some say that there is slow uptake for these new technology platforms! Personally I would not agree but if I run with that thought for a moment, Is there any wonder? Before we get it and buy it, we must understand it, yes?. We then must wade through the plethora of so called ‘market leaders’ to find a provider whose claims are tested and can be believed. 
 
Phone a friend, ask your audience, run a 50/50 call over the offerings, but above all make sure you are talking with a trusted provider, one with credibility and substance behind them. Their own Data Centre, with 24 x 7 x 365 service and a knowledgeable team of people to call when things go wrong. Go wrong you say? Yes, things will go wrong just like all technology. When it does, you really want to be able to reach out and ‘touch someone’ – LOCAL. 1-800timbuktu is probably not much good to you if you are running a web business in Invercargill, New Zealand.