Today begins a brief series on the Evolution of Cloud computing.  Cloud Computing is taking hold of the Data Center compute model and is shaping the way businesses think about their interaction with compute resources.  While the term “Cloud Computing” is still somewhat nebulous, a definition is beginning to take shape and standards are forming around the core offering.  Let’s explore those definitions, those standards, and take a look at the challenges we face in achieving the ultimate vision.

 

The following describes the topics that will be covered:

 

1.       Defining the Cloud

2.       Roots

3.       Virtualization’s Role

4.       Major players

5.       Vision

6.       Where are we today?

7.       Challenges

8.       Cloud Economics

9.       Case Studies

 

Defining the Cloud

 

Let’s start with a definition.  So many folks are vying for the opportunity to put their own spin on what Cloud Computing means, it’s appropriate for a 3^rd party to aggregate the community’s thoughts and posit something we can all agree upon as the baseling.  I prefer to work with the following definition from the National Institute of Standards and Technology:

 

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.”

 

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

 

Source: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/cloud-computing/