The Cloud

This subject has come up a few times in relation to my work and other collaborative projects, so I thought it would be good to document a bit of information on the Internet Cloud architecture being employed and developed these days.

from Wiki:

"Cloud computing is Internet ("cloud") based development and use of computer technology ("computing").^[1][2][3] It is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are provided as a service over the Internet.^[4][5][6][7] Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them...

Architecture

The majority of cloud computing infrastructure as of 2009^[update] consists of reliable services delivered through data centers and built on servers with different levels of virtualization technologies. The services are accessible anywhere that has access to networking infrastructure. The Cloud appears as a single point of access for all the computing needs of consumers. Commercial offerings need to meet the quality of service requirements of customers and typically offer service level agreements.^[15] Open standards are critical to the growth of cloud computing and open source software has provided the foundation for many cloud computing implementations.^[16]

Characteristics

As customers generally do not own the infrastructure, they merely access or rent, they can avoid capital expenditure and consume resources as a service, paying instead for what they use. Many cloud-computing offerings have adopted the utility computing model, which is analogous to how traditional utilities like electricity are consumed, while others are billed on a subscription basis. Sharing "perishable and intangible" computing power among multiple tenants can improve utilization rates, as servers are not left idle, which can reduce costs significantly while increasing the speed of application development. A side effect of this approach is that "computer capacity rises dramatically" as customers do not have to engineer for peak loads.^[17] Adoption has been enabled by "increased high-speed bandwidth" which makes it possible to receive the same response times from centralized infrastructure at other sites..."

a report sponsored by big daddy Microsoft authored by David Chappel & Assoc

and a very good pedestrian approach to defining the Cloud here at the Alex Barnett blog

all this makes me think of the cloud projects of mine with balloons...funny.