Currently Cloud computing is one of the hottest topic in IT industry. Some of the big guns in the industry are eagerly looking forward to it and some others are snubbing this concept. Open Source Guru Richard Stallman and Oracle founder Larry Ellison belong to the second category of the people. "It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign," Stallman told the Guardian. So let us analyze Cloud computing against the backdrop of all these fuss.I would like to recapitulate my findings and opinions about cloud computing through this blog.
Cloud Computing
Gartner recently defined cloud computing as "a style of computing in which massively scalable
IT-enabled capabilities are delivered ‘as a service' to multiple customers using Internet technologies". So Cloud computing allows consumers and businesses to use applications without installation and access their personal files at any computer with internet access. This technology allows for much more efficient computing by centralizing storage, memory, processing and bandwidth. Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities.
The IT capabilities offered through cloud computing can be grouped into three general categories:Developer Tools (Platform as a Service, or PaaS)
This model delivers a computing platform that gives users the resources they need to develop and deploy web-based applications without purchasing, installing, and managing the supporting hardware and software systems.
Business applications (Software as a Service, or SaaS)
This model makes it possible for organizations to license applications as a service on demand, thus avoiding the need to purchase and maintain software installations across their business. SaaS is customarily offered via a subscription model with fees based on usage. SaaS providers usually offer both the software and support, and often partner with third-party hosting providers that help operate and support their SaaS systems.
Infrastructure resources (Infrastructure as a Service, or IaaS)
In this model, the cloud is a form of utility infrastructure. The primary attraction is that an enterprise can get all the computing capacity it needs for vital business applications without having to design, acquire, build, and manage an underlying infrastructure.
Is Cloud Computing a new concept ?
Cloud Computing is a new term in IT industry but it is not a new concept. It's the modern version of the timesharing model from the 1960s, which was eventually killed by the rise of the personal computer. As far as concept of cloud computing is concerned it is just old wine in a new bottle. So the host of cloud computing changed from Time sharing to internet. The old timesharing model arose because computers were expensive and hard to maintain. Modern computers and networks are drastically cheaper, but they're still hard to maintain. As networks have become faster, it is again easier to have someone else do the hard work. Computing has become more of a utility; users are more concerned with results than technical details.
Cloud Computing and BI
Cloud computing can offer a lot in BI area. Most of the BI tools available in industry are not exploiting the usage of internet completely. Cloud computing is a method to use internet extensively to give fast access of data through end users laptops or business phones. Cloud computing is capable of making a huge change in BI industry if this is able to address only one concern - Security.
