The definition of cloud computing

The term "cloud computing" is already familiar to us, from Web 2.0 meetings to the emergence of industry giants in corporate architecture meetings and on the record paper of startup developers. What is now the most asked question is, what is cloud computing?

Just like many other things in this business, our answers to this question are always different. Rod Boothby interviewed a few people at the Web 2.0 Expo and made a small video. Kevin Marks, an evangelist at Google OpenSocial, began to explain the level of abstraction from packet-based web clouds to file-based web clouds to interactive computing-based clouds. In each case, the "cloud" provides an abstraction of a part of the environment that users do not need to understand or care about. Dan Farber, chief editor of CNET NEWS, mentions that "cloud" is the storage space for data and applications, and its availability will evolve to "power" for developers and users in the future ). The scope of other ideas covers everything from how it is provided (eg, streamlining its use, simplifying its deployment, simplifying its operations, etc.) to what it does not (eg, installed software, specific platforms).

Linda Tucci uses RAID as a metaphor to explain cloud computing. Tucci highlighted the cost of cloud computing in this analogy:

When IBM filed its first patent for this revolutionary concept in 1977, they were concerned with performance, not cost. But after a decade, it has become an indisputable fact that a set of consumer-grade "broken disks" can achieve better reliability and performance than stand-alone disks at very low cost. Extremely cheap so that when enough components are broken, the set of disks can be pulled straight out to throw away.

David Young put forward what he called the "norm for cloud computing," in which he listed nine features that make up cloud computing as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud. These features are:
1. Virtual layer network stability
2. Create, delete, clone instance API
3. Application layer interoperability
4 state layer interoperability
5. Application Services
6. The scalability of autonomy
Hardware-level load balancing
8. Storage is the service
9. Superuser privileges, if needed

Others are addressing how to define cloud computing by discussing what is not cloud computing.

James Governor extracted from his thoughts a list of "Top 15" telling people how to judge whether it is cloud computing. Some of Governor's views are that cloud computing does not require software to be installed on your computer, does not require a specific operating system, it is not the same as "grid computing," and does not require you to buy server hardware. Tony McCune also lists three criteria that can be ruled out of cloud computing. These three are simple web portals that only use virtualization, and Microsoft's Mesh. According to these three principles, McCune gives his mind cloud computing technology candidates.

1. Customized web pages - deployable widgets, portlets, or other elements built on top of Adobe Air, Google Gears or even (reposted elsewhere) Java applets. These computing elements can be designed to serve a specific computing capability and can be deployed across multiple platforms without concern for the underlying infrastructure.

2. Autonomous Virtual Clouds - Amazon Web Services, Microsoft SSDS (when it really happens) or VMWare-based computing or storage solutions that provide utility calculations from web connections in an on-demand configuration .

3. Virtual Application Server - Google App Engine is a great example of how cloud computing will evolve. Google's python implementation and limited APIs do not appeal to enterprise customers, but it gives us the first truly usable "application server in the cloud." Here, Google's real highlight is its simplicity. Relatively junior programmers can also quickly develop their own applications without having to worry about what the underlying implementations of the services they are using look like.

Joe McKendrick picks out some of the criticisms of the cloud computing paradigm. McKendrick points out Nick Carr's statement of how international political boundaries (such as the UK's Investigative Power Constraints Act and China's firewalls) will limit the true use of cloud computing.

Boothby summarizes his answer to the question, "The more important question is not what is cloud computing, in other words, what are you going to build?"