Defining the Cloud

Cloud computing is an emerging IT development, deployment and delivery model, enabling real-time delivery of products, services and solutions (i.e., enabling Cloud services) over the Internet. The Cloud is a virtualization of resources that maintains and manages itself. There are of course people resources to keep hardware, operation systems and networking in proper order.

Cloud basically is “internet centric software”. The Cloud computing model is a shift from the traditional single tenant approach to software development to that of a scalable, multi-tenant, multi-platform, and multi-network.

Gartner, the leading research company on Cloud computing, defines Cloud computing as “a style of computing” in which scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are provided as a service to both enterprises and consumers using Internet technologies.

IT services delivered from the Cloud are often divided into three categories. The first and most familiar is software-as-a-service (SaaS)-or on-demand business applications, platform-as-a-service (PaaS)-to build out custom business applications, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)-ability to access raw computing power and storage all over the Internet.

Instead of there being data pipes, routers and servers, there are now “services.” The underlying hardware and software of networking is of course still there but there are now higher level service capabilities available used to build applications.

Virtualization and Cloud management solutions fundamentally change how organizations manage IT and deliver services. Virtualization is essential for enabling the journey to Cloud computing.

Strategically, server virtualization is an IT modernization catalyst that will change how IT is acquired, consumed, managed, sourced and paid for. Virtualization will even change how businesses innovate and grow.”