Study: Cloud computing to brighten future of data centers

Cloud computing, the notion of outsourcing hardware and software to Internet service providers, is showing the classic signs of disruptive technology--it's not good enough for the masses yet, but it has clear potential to shake things up.

Forrester Research on Monday released a report written by James Staten, an IT operations and infrastructure analyst, saying that cloud computing does not meet the needs of large businesses. But that could be only temporary.

The services offered by a new crop of hosting providers, such as Amazon Web Services, are where the overall hosting market is going, according to Staten.

"Cloud computing looks very much like the instantiation of many vendors' visions of the data center of the future; it's an abstracted, fabric-based infrastructure that enables dynamic movement, growth, and protection of services that is billed like a utility. It also has all the earmarks of a disruptive innovation: It is enterprise technology packaged to best fit the needs of small businesses and start-ups--not the enterprise," he wrote.

(Credit: Forrester Research)

One of the primary benefits of cloud computing is the speed at which people can procure services, allowing people to bypass traditional IT departments altogether.

Cloud computing differs from existing hosting services in that services are based on consumption and the technology infrastructure is optimized for hosting several customers. Providers use virtualization extensively and grid computing software.

Forrester identified a wide range of companies as "cloud providers," including Amazon.com, Akamai Technologies, Joyent, Rackspace's Mosso software, and Salesforce.com's Force.com development platform. Microsoft and Google are also rumored to be developing pay-per-drink computing services, such as hosted server processing and storage.

Because these providers are optimized for large-scale hosts, they could eventually serve corporate customers, Forrester said.

"As the gap widens between enterprise and Web giant economics, it may get to the point that it no longer makes financial sense for many businesses to run their own servers. When this happens, will you be a cloud or a cloud customer?" Staten wrote.

[tommccoy0707]

cloud hosting

In theory it sounds great for the small businesses. I say in theory, because most people want something they can feel, hold and see. That's why we have blinking lights. If small businesses can get past that and have a reassurance of backup communications, it should take off big time.

[samj2]

Those who are too slow to accept that the benefits of Cloud Computing solutions greatly outweigh the costs will have trouble staying competitive with counterparts who have embraced the technology. Companies don't generate their own electricity any more and soon enough they won't roll their own computing facilities either - the economics just don't work out.

[jatstuff]

Can we get a bigger image?

The image accompanying the article looks interesting, but at 270x190 I can't read the text.

[mlamonica]

bigger image

Apologies for the small image. I've made it larger--and actually readable :)

[delf76]

I've been about this...

As an Systems Administrator for a small company of about 200 people and 200 desktops, I've been wondering what direction we are going to go. Within 5 years, will all of our Exchange Environment, be all outsourced to a datacenter? What will this mean for the future of Systems Admins? Will companies even need one? Has anyone else been wondering this as well?

[samj2]

I am a sysadmin who has long since been involved in Cloud Computing (SaaS, Web 2.0, etc.). I've also been actively involved in System Administrators guilds in Australia, Europe and the USA, and my take on the situation is that we should embrace any technology that will help our companies and move further up the value chain (for example, by starting to tackle business problems rather than 'spinning wheels' keeping the lights on).

[pradnesh_mohare]

What's different this time?

Quite a few years ago, Sun started the same concept which it called Utility computing. What's the difference between that and "cloud" computing? I don't see any. Seems like a case of "Old wine in a new bottle".

And wasn't it just last week or so that Amazon's cloud went down and companies were left hanging for quite a few hours?

[samj2]

Utility computing is (an important) component of cloud computing, but so are SaaS, Web 2.0, Web Services and other related technologies. Utility computing is primarily abut billing, but you can have a cloud computing service sold like a pizza (per slice) or available for free.

And in terms of Amazon's EC2 going down, bear in mind that the equivalent internal systems would almost certainly have gone down many times for this one (albeit major) outage. There's a saying about lightning never striking the same place twice, which has some truth to it in this context.

[Nick81823]

Cloud Storage

In terms of small businesses, developers and even the enterprise , cloud computing makes a lot of sense, especially when talking about cloud storage, companies will no longer rely on expensive hardware and upkeep of data centers will be irrelevant. Companies like Nirvanix offer cost effective storage and are really focused in the cloud computing space. Data arrays can cost thousands and with the way the economy is looking these days, I?m sure IT depts. will feel the pressure to meet budget, I look for more companies to move their storage into the clouds very soon.

[samj2]

Those of you interested in this article will likely also find my most recent blog post informative:

The Cloud and Cloud Computing consensus definition?
http://samj.net/2008/07/cloud-and-cloud-computing-consensus.html

[loageek]

Hello,
Really insightful stuff. I want to add to this post by referring to this post by Jive Express Software.
http://www.jivesoftware.com/jivespace/community/jivetalks/blog/2009/05/04/enterprise-cloud-computing-announcing-jive-express#cf <a href="http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1638175">law of attraction</a>