Private clouds are currently one of the most popular concepts in cloud computing. They promise the flexibility of cloud infrastructures without sacrificing the control of owning and maintaining your own data center. For a definition of cloud architectures see my previous blog on Cloud Types (http://www.definethecloud.net/?p=109.) Private clouds are an…
Category: Concepts
The Cloud Storage Argument
The argument over the right type of storage for data center applications is an ongoing battle. This argument gets amplified when discussing cloud architectures both private and public. Part of the reason for this disparity in thinking is that there is no ‘one size fits all solution.’ The other part…
The Organizational Challenge
One of the major challenges when looking into cloud architectures is the organizational/process shifts required to make the transition. Technology refreshes seem daunting but changing organizational structure and internal auditing/change management can make rip-and-replace seem like child’s play. In this post I’ll discuss some ways in which to simplify the…
Cloud Types
Within the discussion of cloud computing there are several concepts that get tossed around and mixed up. Part of the reason for this is that there are several cloud architecture types. While there are tons of types and sub-types discussed I’ll focus on four major deployment models here: Public Cloud,…
What's Stopping cloud?
So with everyone talking about cloud and all of the benefits of cloud computing why isn’t everyone diving in? The barriers to adoption can be classified into three major categories: Personal, Technical, and Business. Personal Reasons: Personal barriers to cloud adoption are broad ranging and can be quite difficult to…
Technical Drivers for Cloud Computing
In a previous post I’ve described the business drivers for Cloud Computing infrastructures (http://www.definethecloud.net/?p=27.) Basically the idea of transforming data center from a cost center into a profit center. In this post I’ll look at the underlying technical challenges that cloud looks to address in order to reduce data center…
Virtualization
While not a new concept virtualization has hit the main stream over the last few years and become a uncontrollable buzz word driven by VMware, and other server virtualization platforms. Virtualization has been around in many forms for much longer than some realizes, things like Logical partitions (LPAR) on IBM…
Business Drivers for Cloud Infrastructures
There are several business challenges that drive the cloud discussion and cloud infrastructure market. These business challenges are very different from the technical challenges that are more commonly discussed along with cloud. It’s key to differentiate between the two because typically only one or the other is relevant to any…
Consolidated I/O
Consolidated I/O (input/output) is a hot topic and has been for the last two years, but it’s not a new concept. We’ve already consolidated I/O once in the data center and forgotten about it, remember those phone PBXs before we replaced them with IP Telephony? The next step in consolidating…
What’s a cloud?
So to start things off I thought I’d take a stab at defining the cloud. This is always an interesting subject because so many people have placed very different labels and definitions on the cloud. YouTube is filled with videos of high dollar IT talking heads spitting up non-sensical answers…