Cloud on the Horizon

The fastest supercomputer does about 480 tn computations per second. But
there are huge costs and high performance computing technologies involved. Now
replace the supercomputer with desktop PCs and servers spread across the world.
Throw some softwareactually significant amountson this distributed computing
environment, and what have you got? The same or better processing power, at less
cost. Welcome to the cloud!

Cloud computing supports the idea of computing power offered as a service. It
lets users distribute over a network of thousands of PCs and servers, using
their combined computing power. The PCs used are often commodity PCs and
servers. Put together, the system is capable of processing enormous data sets in
a fraction of the time it would otherwise take. This enables administrators to
achieve supercomputing power and make it available to other users, letting them
pay only for their use of the software. Cloud computing makes IT management far
simpler and ensures a high degree of optimization of IT resources.

In October last year, Google and IBM teamed up to popularize cloud computing
in educational institutions. With the huge amount of data that is an inevitable
result of modern business and science, Googles cloud has emerged as its biggest
form of capital. Yahoo, Amazon, eBay and Microsoft also offer Internet consumer
services like search, social networking, email and online commerce that harness
the power of cloud computing. Amazons Web Services program, which has been
around for a while, allows users to access and use its cloud computing
infrastructure over the Web. IBM and others have built Internet services to
predict market trends, tailor pricing and optimize procurement and
manufacturing. Other companies, which work on the SaaS model, have been using
this successfully.

What is good about the cloud? It works as one supercomputer but is not a
single unit. So if individual pieces fall into disrepair, they can simply be
replaced with better pieces. So the supercomputer keeps getting more powerful.
You need people to only service the machine, not to operate them.

Shyam Malhotra

Cloud computing, if offered as a service, would not require organizations to
get their hands dirty in routine tasks. There are no maintenance issues, and
there is no storage crunchas the cloud is expandable. Corporate users no longer
need to worry about compatibility issues and have no need to upgrade. As the
software is on the Web, it can be continuously improved, forgoing the need for a
build-and-release cycle.

The biggest factor in favor of the cloud is scale. Instead of having to
invest in setting up and maintaining your own infrastructure, the user can have
reduced capital costs, and usage-based payment schemes.

Whats the catch? The cloud needs the Internet. There is no way to guarantee
100% uptime. The recent undersea cable failures are evidence of this. Would the
user ever want to place his entire business online? The other gamble is
surrendering huge amounts of data to third partiesdata which could be sensitive
and used toward malicious ends if it falls into the wrong hands.

Similar concepts have been around grid computing, utility computing and SaaS.

But if the cloud becomes a way of life, there is a lot of evolution ahead.
One, the jobs of inhouse IT managers will not look like what they are today;
secondly, traditional hardware and software manufacturers will need major
realignment to the cloud concept. For the present, both desktop-based and
cloud-based technologies will coexist.

But there can be clouds ahead.