"Cloud computing" make me cringe.
-
Slacker007 wrote:
Cloud is a fancy term for servers/server farms.
Not exactly. Cloud is a fancy term for virtualization. The difference between a cloud and "just a bunch of servers" is similar to the difference between RAID or VFS and "just a bunch of disks". In a "non-cloud" data centre computing services are bound to specific physical hardware--you have a physical box that is a file server, another box that does email, another to run the website and so forth. You could consolidate these all on a single physical box but there would be scalability issues as well as stability, as the various services could interfere with the operations of others--there is a lack of isolation. "Cloudy" data centres take the concept of RAID or virtual file systems in storage and extend that to the server level. Just like where you have one file system that spans multiple disks and the data could be on any one (or more) of the physical drives, in the cloud you can have a virtual machine or container that handles the delivery of services within its own isolated environment that could be stored or executed in any physical location. The benefits in efficiency and reliability and control over resources can be enormous. Now that said, I hate the term "Cloud"--it is a buzzword for a modern approach to something that has actually been done since the mainframe days. I also think that the larger "public cloud" services are ruining the internet. Actually all very large services damage the internet. Facebook is ruining the internet by centralizing social media for example. I think there is a problem with companies avoiding responsibility by farming out their IT to Google, Microsoft and so on. Yes, for a small business, farming this out is justified. For a company employing hundreds or more it is irresponsible. Go ahead and leverage virtualization, but don't lock yourself into Google or Microsoft or whatever service and ignore plans to bring it in house, or at least co-locate somewhere within your control. If too many people pass their responsibility to too few of these big public services it is a recipe for disaster.
Good to know and thanks for the education. I bookmarked this because it is a good explanation. :thumbsup:
-
No movie theatres have closed in this area!
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.