Cloud Computing FAQs

A: Cloud computing is similar in paradigm to the mainframe computing era of the 1970s in that the processing power is largely centralized, and in a remote location. Today, computing clouds use lower-cost Intel-based computers, interconnected by the Internet, VPNs, MPLS, and point-to-point private networks; yielding the economies of scale achieved in yesteryears mainframes at considerably lower costs.

A: Today’s implementation of cloud computing has little in common with grid computing. Grid computing is largely based on a peer to peer architecture, where virtually any device can be a server to provide a specific service. Cloud computing, on the other hand, is a more centralized architecture with the bulk of the computing power typically residing in one location.

A: Cloud computing is no more and no less secured than any other network attached computing system. Like any computing system attached to a network of any kind, proper design and to care must be used to ensure that the security model is both robust and enforced.

A: Yes and no. Save the specific skills associated with the virtualization layer, there are no specific skills that are required in cloud computing that are not required in traditional computing. However, a considerably higher level of operational discipline and change control is required due to the centralized risk of the cloud.

A: Put simply, a public cloud is an architecture that uses common hardware and possibly common partitions to service multiple entities. In other words, on a public cloud your data and your CPU cycles may coexist with that of another person or even that of another company.

A: as you might expect, a private cloud is one on which only one organization’s data exists. With a private cloud an organization has typically achieved adequate scale in which the economies can be achieved without sharing infrastructure with other organizations.

A: For the foreseeable future cloud computing will be a popular means to deploy information technology. What remains to be seen is whether the cloud will remain centralized, whether it will apply to large organizations as well as small, and to what extent applications typically associated with the consumer will find their way into the commercial space.

A: SLA’s, flexibility, operational discipline, and industry-standard platform such that movement to another provider in the future will be simple and relatively painless.