White Paper: An Essential Guide to Possibilities and Risks of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is quite possibly the hottest, most discussed and often misunderstood concept in Information Technology (IT) today.

In short, Cloud Computing proposes to transform the way IT it’s deployed and managed, promising reduced implementation, maintenance costs and complexity, while accelerating innovation, providing faster timeto-market, and the ability to scale high-performance applications and infrastructures on demand.

But business managers know that in spite of the benefits of every new technology/business model there are also risks and issues (like for example: trust, loss of privacy, regulatory violation, data replication, coherency and erosion of integrity, application sprawl and dependencies, etc.) and that rushing things when it comes to Cloud Computing can be a very bad decision, but blowing off Cloud Computing all together because you think you can secure your own stuff better than a service provider or because many claims, made about Cloud Computing, have lead you to the point of “irrational exuberance” and unrealistic expectations, isn’t smart, either .

The goal of this White Paper is to provide a realistic perspective of the possibilities, benefits and risks of Cloud Computing; what to look for, what to avoid, and also some tips and best practices on implementation, architecture and vendor management strategies. It is important to consider all those aspects before you decide either to move (but without putting the carriage before the horse) or not to move your systems, applications, and/or data to to the “Cloud”, in a “hype free” approach.

Click here to download the White Paper (or click on the image at left side)

Thanks and please let me know how I can help you.

P.S. And of course your comments, feedback’s and thoughts are always welcome.

Cloud Computing Briefings about Research, Companies, Key Players and Platforms

I just found this nice resource about Cloud Computing (it’s owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology):

There we can find information about Research, Companies, Key Players and Platforms – click on the Cloud Scene “blue image” and see by yourself :)

The CloudOS’s

I never truly believed that true cloud OS could “appear” and specially be truly usable. Jolicloud was already mentioned here (although I do not consider it a true cloud OS), but what make me a believer was g.ho.st and specially eyeOS .

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“Give me some confidence” …

For the majority of  companies, the possibility of buying computational power, disk storage, collaboration, application development resources, programs, etc. on demand is very compelling. After all we can say that Cloud Computing is: No Hardware, No Software, Don’t Hire No One

But until the major Cloud Computing providers don’t answer in a very clear way, to the legitimate questions entreprises have about security, scalability, performance, availability, reliability, etc . (either at infrastructure level, platform level and service level) we can say that we have a “barrier” between entreprises and Cloud Computing , and that “barrier” needs to be addressed, so that entreprises can feel “total” confidence in Cloud Computing.

Here are some of those concerns that need clear answers:

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Cloud computing: changing the way we work

Quoting an article in the ACM TechNews, Monday, April 20, 2009, bulletin:

« Cloud computing has the potential to create irreversible changes in how computers are used around the world, says David Carrera, director of the Cloud Computing (CC) research team at Spain’s Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC). Carrera says cloud computing technology’s objective is to move any applications stored on a computer to a remote location, eliminating all the standard components, including operating systems and hard drives, which are necessary in today’s computers and make them accessible online through a standard browser. Traditional computers will become obsolete, and instead of traveling with laptops, users will be able to rent a computer and access all of the information and programs online. Carrera says the ultimate goal of cloud computing is to mix and manage applications in an intelligent manner. For example, cloud computing could be used to create software that monitors the response of a machine or appliance in real time and controls its power supply, optimizing energy use and saving money, Carrera says. The CC team is researching systems for coordinating the thousands of terminals and nodes that compose the cloud, a major concern of technology companies. “By applying artificial intelligence to the cloud, we are hoping to develop a system through which computers can manage themselves,” says UPC professor Ricard Gavalda »…

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