March 2nd, 2009
UC Berkeley scientists define cloud computing
Next time you’re at loggerheads with your peers over the definition and merits of cloud computing, gain some leverage by dropping terms like “parallelizable” and “multiplexing” into your argument courtesy of UC Berkeley Reliable Adaptive Distributed Systems Laboratory (RAD Lab). The lab has a lofty vision: “Enable one person to invent and run the next revolutionary IT service, operationally expressing a new business idea as a multi-million-user service over the course of a long weekend.”
In a recently published white paper, Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing, the research team provides a precise definition of what they feel is a movement that will transform the IT industry within 5-10 years:
Cloud Computing refers to both the applications delivered as services over the Internet and the hardware and systems software in the datacenters that provide those services. The services themselves have long been referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS), so we use that term. The datacenter hardware and software is what we will call a Cloud. When a Cloud is made available in a pay-as-you-go manner to the public, we call it a Public Cloud; the service being sold is Utility Computing. … We use the term Private Cloud to refer to internal datacenters of a business or other organization that are not made available to the public. Thus, Cloud Computing is the sum of SaaS and Utility Computing, but does not normally include Private Clouds.
The 24-page report goes beyond clarifying terms to include a clear analysis of cloud computing replete with simple formulas and tables to quantify comparisons between cloud and conventional Computing. It compares the big three cloud computing vendors (Amazon, Microsoft, and Google), and identifies the top technical and non-technical obstacles and opportunities of cloud computing, which are summarized in this table copied from the PDF download (click on image for a clearer view):
UC Berkeley RAD Lab: Above the Clouds White Paper
The researchers conclude that cloud computing will grow, but it will be a bumpy ride. They predict that application software needs to both scale down rapidly as well as up while infrastructure software needs to be aware that it is no longer running on bare metal but on virtual machines. Hardware systems should be designed at the scale of a container, or at least a dozen racks, and will be the minimum purchase size.
In addition to the paper, there is a 14-minute video interview with the paper’s authors and the Above the Clouds blog for more information.
Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer. Previously, he was the manager of marketing editorial at CBS Interactive, delivering client solutions on BNET, ZDNet, and TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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