Blade Watch

Network World

It seems that every decade or so I get the opportunity to write an article on IT déjà vu. This time around, the topic is cloud computing, which is the latest IT buzz word.

My first reaction to the term was confusion. The amorphous “cloud” has been used for decades to symbolize a WAN that connected clients to server-based data centers. Is cloud computing another version of network computing? Yes, but this cloud is not just any WAN; it is a synonym for the Internet. Nothing new here. The Internet has been around for over two decades.

OK, let us look at what form of computing in being provided via the cloud. In this model, all IT applications and facilities (i.e. compute, storage and network) are provided as a service rather than dedicated infrastructure. This is intended to allow any user, independent of client platform, to access IT services without knowledge or concern of their location or form. Sound familiar – it’s a service-oriented architecture (SOA)!

An interesting article about cloud computing, which a lot of people are talking about. I’ve recently switched bladewatch.com to mosso.com which is a hosting cloud and it’s working very well. I wonder if cloud might not be something that might reach the enterprise fairly soon, particularly in the risk analytics arenas where performance is key, or even in those cross business line applications – where I want my batch my workload handled but performance is not key? Even for my web or Citrix applications?  A fixed fee per Citrix user, IT supplies the capacity based on your application profile, number of users and performance requirements?

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