EOH unpacks cloud computing

Lisa Fielder, Head of Infrastructure Managed Services at EOH, says unless you have been incognito, you would have at some time heard the terminology cloud computing. But what does it mean? Where does it come from and what is all the hype about?

"Technology is constantly evolving, and if you look at key developments over the past decade, it is a wonder that we can actually keep up," says Fielder. "APP, AJAX, micro-blogging, tablets and social media optimisation are just some of the new buzzwords that have been flung around this past year. And then there is cloud computing."

So, how do we encapsulate what this term describes and the direction in which computer infrastructure is moving? Fielder explains that cloud computing comprises the following three types of service models: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS), and then underpinning these services is the technology that supports cloud computing.

Fielder says it is important for people to understand the concept of cloud computing in simple terms, and be made aware of the impact this technology will have both at work and home.

According to Kevin Marks from Google, the term cloud computing emerged from the early days of the Internet, where people illustrated the network depicting it as a cloud. "We didn`t care where the messages went... the cloud hid it from us," he says.

Fielder elaborates further and says by breaking down the term into words even more, we will see that `cloud` means that it is on the network or Internet and `computing` means the infrastructure, processing power and storage. "Cloud computing, therefore, gives you the ability to fulfil many diverse business needs without having to spend money up-front, or have the management responsibility of owning your own infrastructure. These are significant benefits that enable competitiveness."

She says businesses can leverage off and utilise cloud computing to provide key business services, ranging from e-mail, accounting software, customer relationship management systems and document storage, that they otherwise would not have access to without incurring significant infrastructure and licensing costs. On a personal level, users will experience greater mobility as they are able to store and access media or data files such as music, pictures, videos, and bookmarks, or play games on a remote server rather than having to carry a storage medium such as a DVD or thumb drive. People who use Web-based e-mail such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, a company-owned e-mail, or even an e-mail client program such as Outlook, are currently making use of cloud e-mail servers.

EOH`s view is that cloud computing is a delivery model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. EOH advises that there are four basic options that can be pursued for implementing this technology:

* Private cloud - a private enterprise-owned or leased cloud would be a situation where the business maintains an off-site server in a location that is controlled by a service provider.
* Community cloud - may encompass a scenario where several organisations have similar requirements and seek to share infrastructure so as to realise some of the benefits of cloud computing.
* Public cloud - is sold to the public, mega-scale infrastructure is in place and a typical example would be a scenario where companies like Google or Microsoft provide business services and it is accessed solely via the Internet - an example of this is Gmail, MS CRM and Jungle Disk.
* Hybrid cloud - is a scenario where you can have a combination of public and private cloud.

Fielder states that in all types of cloud computing, there are monthly recurring costs for services, but you don`t normally need to incur any upfront equipment investment. "There are countless reasons to implement some form of cloud computing. These may be for disaster recovery, data back-up services or simply to make use of applications such as a CRM system, e-mail or Microsoft applications. Implemented wisely, cloud computing can enhance business productivity, as long as you choose the right solution that is catered to your unique environment," concludes Fielder.