OT: Cloud Computing is coming to ...

[Michael Semcheski]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 2:36 PM, Marko Vojinovic <vvmarko at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ok, I understand what you are saying, but what you actually describe is an
> organizational issue, while I was having in mind a little bit more technical
> aspect.

No, what I'm describing is a situation.  That situation developed over
time.  Now, there are new technologies (many of which fall under some
definitions of the word "cloud") which form a new, more efficient
solution to an old problem.

It all depends on your definition of the term "cloud computing" or the
"cloud".  From RedHat's Cloud 101 paper: "Conceptually, cloud
computing can be thought of as building resource abstraction and
control on top of the hardware abstraction provided by
virtualization."


> Am I running a cloud environment on my laptop?

The point is - it doesn't matter.  There is no definitive definition
of Cloud Computing.  But that doesn't mean that when NASA or RedHat or
Microsoft talk about Cloud Computing its all BS.  A lot of what's
being said is very interesting and will be very relevant to lots of
people.  Maybe you're one of them.  Maybe you're not.


> I want to know what is the difference between a "set of virtual machines" and a
> "cloud" from a technical perspective, ie. from the point of view of
> *implementation*, not organization.

For some definitions of cloud, the difference between a set of virtual
machines and a cloud is that the cloud is accessed through an API, the
power (in terms of CPU cycles or storage) scale linearly and
indefinitely.


> OTOH, if it also has an implementation aspect, I would like to know what extra
> software implements it, what is its purpose, and what benefits does it bring.

There is no definitive definition of cloud, but if I had to point to
an open source package or project that implements a cloud, I would
point to OpenStack.