When talking about a cloud computing system, it’s helpful to divide it into two sections: the front endand the back end. They connect to each other through a network, usually the Internet. The front end is the side the computer user, or client, sees. The back end is the “cloud” section of the system. The front end includes the client’s computer (or computer network) and the application required to access the cloud computing system. Read on →

The applications of cloud computing are practically limitless. With the right middleware, a cloud computing system could execute all the programs a normal computer could run. Potentially, everything from generic word processing software to customized computer programs designed for a specific company could work on a cloud computing system. Why would anyone want to rely on another computer system to run programs and store data? Here are just a few reasons: Clients would be able to access their applications and data from anywhere at any time. Read on →

Enterprise service operational principles These dozen statements describe how an enterprise service should be. If all these statements apply to my new enterprise service, I can happily stamp my operational approval on it. I have provided a few examples to make these statements a little clearer, but I have not described the actions required to get there. As you can imagine, putting these principles into practice for enterprise services is complicated. Read on →

Virtualization of computers or operating systems hides the physical characteristics of a computing platform from users; instead it shows another abstract computing platform. A hypervisor is a piece of virtualization software that allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer concurrently. Virtualization providers include VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix Systems. Virtualization is an enabler of cloud computing. Recently some vendors have described solutions that emulate cloud computing on private networks, referring to these as “private” or “internal” clouds (where “public” or “external” cloud describes cloud computing in the traditional mainstream sense). Read on →

In 2005, when Hitesh Chellani and Anand Babu Periasamy decided to start their own cloud computing start-up, there weren’t too many believers to cheer them. The duo planned to build technology that would store everything that’s ever been filmed, taped, photographed, recorded, written or spoken – an idea so audacious that it was dismissed as a pipe dream. After several meetings at the local Starbucks in Fremont California, the two entrepreneurs launched Gluster with an angel investment of $200,000 from Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Anil Godhwani. Read on →

Cloud computing is one of the latest computer and business industry buzz words. It joins the ranks of virtualization, grid computing, and clustering, among others, in the IT industry. The problem is that, depending on your point of view, the definition of cloud computing can be quite different. Depending on your perspective, you could look at it from a business point of view or an application point of view, as well as others. Read on →

Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. These services are broadly divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that’s often used to represent the Internet in flowcharts and diagrams. A cloud service has three distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional hosting. It is sold on demand, typically by the minute or the hour; it is elastic — a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time; and the service is fully managed by the provider (the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and Internet access). Read on →