Cloud computing-How far we've come

Cloud computing has risen rapidly in a very short period of time and has evolved significantly in the mode of user and operational computing for individuals and businesses. Conceptually, cloud computing can be viewed as building resource extraction and control from the hardware extraction layer provided by virtualization technology, although cloud computing does not always need virtualization. And we also found that the benefits of cloud computing are not only to enhance the efficiency of the enterprise, but also to increase the flexibility of the enterprise and the possibility of global collaboration through faster it resource access and easy sharing of information. These are the key factors driving innovation and growth in enterprises.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the Asia-Pacific region's cloud computing market (excluding Japan) has been booming for five years, with sales expected to reach $5.8 billion trillion by 2015, equivalent to an astonishing 39% compound annual growth rate, This is particularly true compared with a growth rate of only 7% per cent in the overall ICT market in the region.

It is proven that cloud computing can provide compelling value returns and powerful business opportunities for corporate users. Technology is deeply rooted in our daily life, and its influence on real life must be valued by us. As Forrester outlines, "cloud self-service and on-demand features not only inspire users and application software development teams to use them for their needs, but also drive it efficiencies in highly shared, virtualized, and accessible ways to run IT infrastructure." According to Forrester, Cloud computing is helping corporate users reduce energy costs, carbon dioxide emissions and e-waste. So choosing how to build the right cloud may be the judgment that it leaders need to make in this 10-year period.

When the term "cloud computing" first appears, it describes a computational utility. Used to be a way for large service providers to provide services on demand through the grid. These "public clouds" have significant features associated with the traditional application of it in some enterprises. But at the same time, most enterprise users are still skeptical about migrating their apps to public cloud providers. For whatever reason, enterprise users have an interest in building mixed clouds across internal and external resources to achieve the advantages of two kinds of cloud: Leveraging the economy and flexibility of the public cloud to optimize business needs such as auditing, risk management, and strong protocol management.

When choosing whether to deploy a private cloud, a mixed cloud or a publicly managed cloud model, careful assessment of requirements is an important part of the decision-making process. Large enterprises and government IT departments have long used expensive dedicated systems on their core IT systems. The most important step towards cloud computing is to standardize legacy systems and use more modern standard hardware and software as appropriate. Without taking into account their existing IT infrastructure and application plans, enterprise users are not fully aware of the economic and technological advantages of cloud computing, thereby placing themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

For example, there are many benefits to choosing an open architecture standard operating system, such as Linux, to build on community-driven innovation technology. These enterprise-class offerings can provide a stable foundation and world-class support for a new generation of IT infrastructure, helping enterprise users achieve better business capabilities and greater cost advantages.

An open hybrid cloud management approach can help enterprise users achieve this standardization at their own pace. It also provides users with a choice to replace their existing application software and infrastructure and start replacing them. The cloud can also provide a better way to simply extend existing proprietary technologies and products, such as deploying virtualized platforms on the cloud. This prevents enterprise users from being locked in by one vendor and then diverted to being locked into another vendor, from proprietary virtualization to proprietary cloud computing.

Openness provides a way for this change to allow business users to control their technology development plans and their IT future. We see open source as an integral part of this. Open source vendors contribute source code to the project, allowing users to participate in the code contribution and make it better. Wide support for KVM and open Virtualization alliance with major companies such as IBM, HP, Dell, AMD, Intel and Fujitsu are proof of their interest in open virtualization solutions. The Ovirt project also added open source virtualization management.

Hybrid cloud Management can help enterprise users build private and public clouds that cover a variety of virtualized platforms, benefiting from open source and openness such as open standards and open application programming interfaces (APIs). The Deltacloud project, which is Foundation by Apache Software, is a good proof. This is accomplished by providing a complete set of APIs that can be compatible with multiple cloud providers to achieve a transparent, non-locking solution for cloud construction, both virtualized software and public cloud. Any cloud migration decision must take into account the nature of the cloud and the ease with which different clouds are managed. Also consider the ability to change a cloud provider if the enterprise user chooses to do so.

Cloud computing has acquired a certain degree of market maturity, and it is only a matter of time before the standards it operates are accepted. At the same time for many users, the cloud is still a daunting new technology, the prospect is full of infinite possibilities. But like any other strategic it product, it requires a cautious and thoughtful approach. Don't go the wrong way. Cloud computing is, should be, the strategic direction of your business. (Author Glenn West is the Asia Pacific manager of Red Hat Company's cloud computing division)

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)