Computer Solutions
4 Design engineers and design managers may have heard the term ‘cloud computing’ but found it hard to establish exactly what it is - or whether it will help them in their jobs. Alistair Rae presents some answers to these questions and looks at what might happen in the future.
4 Les ingénieurs concepteurs et les chefs de bureaux d’études ont dû entendre parler de « l’infonuagique » mais ont trouvé difficile d’établir ce à quoi cela correspondait réellement, ou encore de savoir si cela les aidera dans leurs activités. Alistair Rae présentes quelques réponses à ces questions et contemple ce qui pourrait se produire dans le futur.
4 Konstrukteure und
Designmanager mögen den Begriff „Cloud-Computing“ zwar schon einmal gehört haben, können aber oft nicht genau einordnen, um was es sich dabei handelt oder ob dies bei ihrer Arbeit Nutzen bringen würde. Alistair Rae gibt einige Antworten auf diese Fragen und untersucht, was in der Zukunft liegen mag.
A clearer view of how to exploit cloud computing
A
s information technology companies describe new ways to offer infrastructure to businesses, the term ‘cloud computing’ is becoming more common - but what
exactly is it? The definition of the internet is quite simple and easily understood: a freely accessible network of servers for information, services and commerce. Cloud computing has no single, clear definition, partly because it is difficult to explain. As a consequence, it is not easy to see the advantages, disadvantages and how a particular company might exploit cloud computing. Predictions by Gartner Research for 2011
and beyond suggest that, by 2012, one-fifth of all companies will no longer own their IT (information technology) assets and that, by 2015, information- smart businesses will increase recognised IT spending per head by 60 per cent. But, at the same time, in 2011 Gartner predicts a clash between cloud computing and more conventional ways of providing IT. Although the idea for this type of computing
has been around for at least a decade, it is only now that there is reliable software and infrastructure readily available to support it. The term ‘cloud computing’ comes from a way the IT industry has historically explained how systems function. There is what you know a lot about and have control over, usually a local computer (a PC, Apple Macintosh or other workstation), which is connected to something else that you do not have to worry about - and this undefined ‘something’ is depicted as a cloud (Fig. 1). Connection between the two is usually through a
network, although sometimes the diagram refers to processes coexisting in a single computer. What goes on in the cloud is often not explained but, whatever it is, it is assumed to work. In fact the technology involved is not new, although it is continually being improved as fresh commercial demands are met by more development. Those instances not normally considered to
be cloud computing are those where everything takes place within one computer, or where there is a single server providing multiple services. The latter case is common where there are many virtual private servers (VPSs) on a single physical server at an internet service provider (ISP), sometimes presented as a ‘cloud’ even though this is not really the case. The essential characteristics of cloud computing are that processing is carried out remotely from the user, using variable amounts of metered resource, with payment on the basis of a subscription or the resources used, rather like a pay-per-use mobile telephone (Fig. 2). In business terms, it makes a user independent of hardware and moves IT expenditure from capital expenditure (capex) to operating expenditure (opex). There are three basic types of cloud, all
delivered over a network connection as computing services to the end-user. Infrastructure clouds, which are also referred
to as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), are where hardware resources - processing power and storage - are made available to the user, thereby removing the need for companies to have their own servers. The correct usage of the term refers either to data and storage clouds or compute clouds, which
Fig. 1. All-purpose clouds are undefined computing resources that can be assumed to work, so there is no need to worry about what is there or how it operates.
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Fig. 2. Cloud computing is characterised by remotely located services and a sale-of-service payment structure in which the only resources paid for are those that are actually consumed.
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