CLOUD COMPUTING IS THE CLOSEST WE'VE COME yet to what futurists promised the internet could be. If you use Google Apps, YouTube, Amazon, Salesforce, Flickr, Facebook, Bittorrent, Skype, or any of a myriad of applications that let you access and share information quickly and connect with other people, you’ve already been in the cloud. Below are 10 questions and answers to get you up to speed on this technology.
1. What’s it all about?
In simple terms, cloud computing is a virtual network of services and infrastructure that can be accessed from anywhere at anytime. But at the same time, there is no “thing” called the cloud; it’s a general term applied to this distributed computing network.
2. How is it different from grid computing or thin clients?
Although they share some features, grids and thin clients are localized, while clouds represent something more, says Greg Arnette, founder and CTO of Sonian Networks, a hosted services company that helps clients manage critical IT functions.
“We’re entering a period of time where hybrid architectures are going to be in place for the foreseeable future. The hybrid architecture element means that there will be a blending of IT services that are on-premises—the core servers behind the firewall—and there will be extension services running in the cloud, tightly tethered to the customer’s on-site data center,” he says. “Think of the cloud as a virtual extension of the customer’s own data center that happens to be running on someone else’s infrastructure, but it’s a set of services that the customer has complete and full access to.”
3. What are the benefits?
Done correctly, there are numerous benefits to cloud computing, including powerful (yet inexpensive) server capabilities, software-as-a-service (SaaS), data backup and storage, IT sandboxing capabilities, and more.
4. Inexpensive? Really?
The biggest benefit for bottom-line-conscious business offices and IT departments is that you don’t “buy” the cloud. Much like a common utility, you just pay for what you use, when you use it, and then turn it off when you’re done. Think about situations in which your normally smooth-running servers can be inundated with data requests, such as at student registration time. You could invest thousands of dollars in additional servers and staff to handle that load, but if those servers sit unused for most of the time, it’s a waste of money. “The ability to have that server somewhere, to not have to worry about it, turn it up as you need it, and pay for only what you use is really attractive to a lot of people,” says Mike Richwalsky, assistant director of public affairs at Allegheny College (Pa.). Richwalsky also writes HighEdWebTech.com, a blog that deals with web development in higher education.
You don't 'buy' the cloud. Much like a common
utility, you just pay for what you use, when you
use it, and then turn it off when you're done.
“Budgets are getting smaller and, at least at schools that I have been at, the information technology group has to be everything for everyone service-wise,” he says. “That’s very difficult to do with budgets that are being cut and with staff that aren’t being replaced. Clouds offer us the opportunity to accomplish the things that we want to accomplish with the resources that we have.”
5. How can it save money?
It can cost less to take advantage of existing infrastructure than to build your own from scratch, especially for short-term projects. Because of that, cloud technology could be the saving grace for business continuity during catastrophic events such as hurricanes, floods, or terror attacks, and could prove invaluable for crisis communications.
Michael Dame, director of web communications at Virginia Tech at the time of the tragic campus shootings in 2007, experienced unexpected demand firsthand. In the furious few days following the event, the school’s servers were inundated with information requests. In fact, during one 24-hour period Virginia Tech served 432 GB of traffic—a capacity that would cripple many smaller school networks. Fortunately, Dame was able to contact a local networking group and request that four additional servers get turned on to help with the heavy demand.
