CIOs Are Looking at (and Talking About) Cloud Computing

August 12th, 2008

Most CIOs continue to depend on server infrastructures for a simple reason: They’re not convinced cloud computing is ready for prime time. Anyone who thinks that the cloud, or even their own data center or infrastructure, should provide the reliability has it backward. If you want real reliability, write more resilient applications.

What is Cloud Computing? Cloud computing allows you to access your data without understanding or being responsible for its infrastructure, depending on software as a service. A report published by leading analyst firm Gartner says that it’s a developing concept that combines Software as a Service, (SaaS), Web 2.0 and other recent Internet-based trends.
At its best, cloud computing allows you to outsource your infrastructure and get rid of your IT department. Many startups use it to avoid costs. But executives have also learned that mission-critical applications can sometimes go down. Prominent outages have recently occurred at Amazon and eBay.

Cloud computing is not the same as grid computing, which is simply a cluster of loosely connected computers that distribute tasks among themselves. The report, Market-Oriented Cloud Computing: Vision, Hype, and Reality for Delivering IT Services as Computing Utilities reports that many cloud computing deployments are today powered by grids, have autonomic characteristics and are billed like utilities. Cloud computing is a natural next step from grid computing. Some successful cloud architectures have little or no centralized infrastructure or billing systems whatsoever including peer-to-peer networks like BitTorrent and Skype and volunteer services like SETI.

The majority of cloud computing infrastructure currently consists of reliable services delivered through next-generation data centers that are built on computer and storage virtualization technologies, according to Network World magazine. The services are accessible anywhere in the world, with the cloud appearing as a single point of access for all the computing needs of consumers. Commercial offerings need to meet the quality of service requirements of customers and typically offer service level agreements. Open standards and open source software are also critical to the growth of cloud computing.

IT executives are wary of cloud computing for reasons that go beyond the perception of unreliability. They’re fearful that data won’t be safe in the hands of cloud providers; they’re convinced they won’t be able to manage cloud resources effectively; they’re suspicious of providers that won’t share details of the infrastructures supporting their cloud environments; and they’re worried that the technology could threaten their own data centers or even their staff.

In short, the jury is still out. There are too many security and reliability concerns at the moment to make it a viable solution. But in the future, it will probably evolve.

Tags: cio cloud computing gartner grid computing it executive saas storage virtualization

Entry Filed under: EHS/HSE Technology