Friday, October 9, 2009
PEW Report on Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a loosely defined concept. We can find thousand, if not hundreds of definition of Cloud computing on the internet. However, in simpler term we can define cloud computing as a convergence of three major trends; Infrastructure as a service(IaaS), Platform as a service(PaaS) and software as a service(SaaS).These are the classes of technology capability or IT infrastructure that are being offered as Clouds today.
Wiki defines IaaS as "The delivery of computer infrastructure as a service". Amazon's EC2 service is a very good example. They provide a web service that provides resizable computing capacity in the cloud. Developers or users get a virtual server, storage space, network configuration on a pay per use basis. PaaS type of clouds provides users with the service to develop, test, deploy and host sophisticated web applications in the cloud. For example BungeeConnect is a Web based IDE that allows users to build sophisticated mashup applications based on their requirements. And finally, the SaaS type of clouds provides users with software that could be run on the internet. Commercial software’s such as Clarizen's online project management tool, Zoho's customer relationship management and human resource application come under SaaS type cloud. There are also number of office application that could be considered as platform as a service cloud. Google Doc, blist, slide rocket are applications that allows users to create or blow documents into their online cloud and then to work on them using any kind of computing device using internet.
Cloud Computing can be seen in various forms. If you use internet you are most likely to be using cloud computing of some form. The survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project listed some of the activities considered to be cloud activity and found that 69% of the internet users have done at least one. The survey also found that young internet users of 18-29 are more likely to use cloud computing than the older ones (79%).
According to the survey, people mostly use cloud computing because of its ease and flexibility. Users don't have to run around with their floppy disk or hard disk to take their data to access from a different location. With cloud computing, data could be stored on the centralised location/server and could be accessed from anywhere via internet.
Cloud computing is definitely the next big wave in computing. It holds a lot of promise and is certainly here to stay for a long time. The fact that users don't have to worry about uptime, backups, system maintenance, system admins, power failures etc is a great benefit to any normal internet user or business.
To conclude, Cloud Computing is not a new technology. It is something which we already had but with a different name. It is not a technology on its own, it is simply a term given to three major IT trends that I discussed above.
Wiki defines IaaS as "The delivery of computer infrastructure as a service". Amazon's EC2 service is a very good example. They provide a web service that provides resizable computing capacity in the cloud. Developers or users get a virtual server, storage space, network configuration on a pay per use basis. PaaS type of clouds provides users with the service to develop, test, deploy and host sophisticated web applications in the cloud. For example BungeeConnect is a Web based IDE that allows users to build sophisticated mashup applications based on their requirements. And finally, the SaaS type of clouds provides users with software that could be run on the internet. Commercial software’s such as Clarizen's online project management tool, Zoho's customer relationship management and human resource application come under SaaS type cloud. There are also number of office application that could be considered as platform as a service cloud. Google Doc, blist, slide rocket are applications that allows users to create or blow documents into their online cloud and then to work on them using any kind of computing device using internet.
Cloud Computing can be seen in various forms. If you use internet you are most likely to be using cloud computing of some form. The survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project listed some of the activities considered to be cloud activity and found that 69% of the internet users have done at least one. The survey also found that young internet users of 18-29 are more likely to use cloud computing than the older ones (79%).
According to the survey, people mostly use cloud computing because of its ease and flexibility. Users don't have to run around with their floppy disk or hard disk to take their data to access from a different location. With cloud computing, data could be stored on the centralised location/server and could be accessed from anywhere via internet.
With cloud computing, data and computing are not in the place they use to be in (personal desktop). The data is stored at the service provider’s end. The location of where the data is stored is very critical because the possession of data in computing world implies control. If a data is stored in a personal computer you have the ability to copy, move or delete your data. Basically do whatever you want to do with your data. Now, with cloud computing, even though you have some level control over your data, you don't have control over what the service provider does with your data. Therefore, despite the popularity of cloud computing for it's ease, flexibility and mobility the Pew Internet and American Life survey found that users are still wary and concerned about how their personal data are being used by the service providers.
Cloud computing is definitely the next big wave in computing. It holds a lot of promise and is certainly here to stay for a long time. The fact that users don't have to worry about uptime, backups, system maintenance, system admins, power failures etc is a great benefit to any normal internet user or business.
To conclude, Cloud Computing is not a new technology. It is something which we already had but with a different name. It is not a technology on its own, it is simply a term given to three major IT trends that I discussed above.
// posted by Sumit @ 11:52 AM 
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