Cloud computing is a hotter buzzword in 2008 than virtualization was in 2007. Both internal utility infrastructures based on virtualization and external cloud computing services provide applications with abstracted compute resources. Physical hardware is consolidated, aggregated, and abstracted behind the scenes. This note provides:
- A definition of cloud computing.
- How both the cloud and utility infrastructure can fit into a data center of the future where management is centralized but infrastructure is decentralized.
- Affinities between “infrastructure in the cloud” and internal utility infrastructure.
- Winning conditions for the merger to be successful.
Info-Tech sees internal infrastructure and external infrastructure in the cloud eventually becoming part of a unified computing fabric that IT can manage to provision business enabling applications. However, all cloud hype aside; both internal utility infrastructures and cloud computing options have a way to go before this trend becomes a reality.