I have been trying find the substance behind the 'cloud' for a few months now. The following model introduced at a NetApp conference the other week really helped me get the point.

NetApp consider there to be 4 different cloud markets

   1) Software as a Service (SaaS)

      -> The likes of Salesforce and google apps

   2) Infrastructure as a Service

      -> Providing all hardware and OS as a service within a managed datacentre, you manage the rest

   3) Platform as a Service

      -> Provide everything up to a development layer such as Oracle, db2, websphere etc

   4) Storage as a Service

      -> Storage provided via IP across the internet or as a shared service within a shared datacentre

So where is the magic technology, the new software and hardware to enable the cloud? turns out the behind all of the above are consolidation, virtualisation. provisioning techniques we have been talking about for some time. For me the magic is not the technology, its managing to convince the world that these techniques can be used without detriment to service, security, bandwidth and scalability.  Is the cloud literally a blanket of mist between the business and the service provider in an attempt to convince the business units to share infrastructure and not concern themselves with the underlying technology?

I think the explosion of cloud based marketing is a reflection on the converging virtualisation and provisioning technologies that are really beginning to offer a new level of flexibility that can deliver truly dynamic environments. Choosing to share your data and processing power with others is a risk that will only accepted when there is a big payoff. Adopting a shared architecture in the past has not always given increased flexibility as well as reduced cost. Adoption of cloud based principals aim to give you maximum flexibility as well as reduced cost. Terms like "computing on demand" and “utility computing” have been about for some time but without the right scale of consolidation have not always been cost effective options.

To summarise I think Cloud computing is more an attitude than a technology. It’s about the service owner being focused on the outcome he needs for a service and trusting in a service provider to provide it. This trust will only come from positive experiences in service sharing and this will take time and a few brave pioneers.

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