Finbarr McCarthy

I have seen a good deal of commentary lately on cloud computing where people (who should be “in the know”) have put forward opinions that cloud computing is hosting by another name.

To put the record straight, yes you can use cloud computing as an alternative means of traditional server or website hosting, but it is so much more than that.  Unlike traditional hosting arrangements cloud computing offers many different layers and opportunities right now, and many new layers and opportunities are either just unfolding or yet to be discovered.

We are all familiar with SaaS (Software as a Service).  Well Cloud Computing readily provides the ability to use the cloud as PaaS (Platform as a Service).  One of the massive benefits of Cloud Computing is the flexible infrastructural platform it provides and the ability to change computing resource from a capital intensive / skills intensive investment into a utility.  Just like your electricity or gas supply, plug in and pay for as much or little as you use.

There are a number of industry heavy-weights investing heavily right now in cloud computing, including Amazon, IBM, Google, HP, Dell, Microsoft & Others.  All of these providers currently have their efforts concentrated on providing standalone public clouds.  Meanwhile VM Ware, and Red Hat are currently offering customers the ability to build private cloud computing platforms.

My view is that cloud computing platforms will soon reach a tipping point where it will no longer be at the cutting edge but instead will be the de-facto mechanism used for providing computing resources.  However, in order for this to happen there is one significant hurdle overcome first, that is, the ability for all the public and private clouds to interconnect seamlessly.  Consider it the “Inter-Cloud”.  For a comparison consider the growth of the internet, firstly there were a bunch of private networks that were not connected to each other, then with the emergence of the internet private networks began to connect to the internet using gateways.  Before too long the emergence and broad adoption of standard protocols (TCP/IP) eliminated the requirement for gateways and everything became connected to everything.  Something similar is inevitable for cloud computing and it is probably going to happen sooner than you think.

One technology to watch here is Red Hats MRG.  MRG stands for Messaging Real-Time Grid and is really a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  With technologies like MRG, Cloud Computing Consultants can now offer clients incredible computing power from existing server and desktop inventory by enabling scheduling to local and remote grids, rented cloud capacity and cycle-stealing from desktop PCs.

This is the start of something big, next time I post I will outline some very specific ideas I have on how these changes not only affect the IT industry but are also going to have a dramatic affect on how the world works.

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