Getting your head around cloud: utility computing in the 21st century
Posted in: Internet Use/New Technologies at 27/01/2010 18:13
Simon Probert parts the mists around cloud computing, but is it an evolution or a revolution?
The 'Cloud' is everywhere it seems, in the media, on the web and bandied about by IT companies left right and centre. All the cloud-vendors seem to agree that cloud is "the future of computing". But what actually is cloud computing? Is cloud simply another cunning industry buzzword for selling more servers, or is cloud computing really a 'paradigm shift' in the way we access computing resources?
Arguably it's a bit of both.
To understand if cloud computing does represent an evolution - if not a revolution - in our thinking on the way we process digital information, as well as ideas of data ownership versus access, we need to first understand the fundamentals of what cloud computing is and then examine how this might benefit a business.
http://www.fastthinking.com.au/the-magazine/summer-2010/head-in-the-cloud.aspx
Also see
UK government to set up own cloud computing system
The government has unveiled a sweeping strategy to create its own internal "cloud computing" system - such as that used by Google, Microsoft and Amazon - as part of a radical plan that it claims could save up to £3.2bn a year from an annual bill of at least £16bn.
The key part of the new strategy, outlined by the Cabinet Office minister Angela Smith, will be the concentration of government computing power into a series of about a dozen highly secure data centres, each costing up to £250m to build, which will replace more than 500 presently used by central government, police forces and local authorities.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/27/cloud-computing-government-uk
