Cloudware Basics - Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers - page 259

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Cloudware Basics
Many motivating factors have led to the emergence of cloud computing.
Businesses require services that include both infrastructure and applica-
tion workload requests, while meeting defined service levels for capacity,
resource tiering, and availability. IT delivery often necessitates costs and effi-
ciencies that create a perception of IT as a hindrance, not a strategic partner.
Issues include underutilized resources, overprovisioning or underprovi-
sioning of resources, lengthy deployment times, and lack of cost visibility.
Virtualization is the first step toward addressing some of these challenges
by enabling improved utilization through server consolidation, workload
mobility through hardware independence, and efficient management of
hardware resources.
The virtualization system is a key foundation for the cloud computing
system. We stitch together compute resources so as to appear as one large
computer behind which the complexity is hidden. By coordinating, manag-
ing, and scheduling resources such as CPUs, network, storage, and firewalls
in a consistent way across internal and external premises, we create a flex-
ible cloud infrastructure platform. This platform includes security, automa-
tion and management, interoperability and openness, self-service, pooling,
and dynamic resource allocation. In the view of cloud computing we are
advocating, applications can run within an external provider, in internal IT
premises, or in combination as a hybrid system—it matters how they are run,
not where they are run.
Cloud computing builds on virtualization to create a service-oriented
computing model. This is done through the addition of resource abstrac-
tions and controls to create dynamic pools of resources that can be con-
sumed through the network. Benefits include economies of scale, elastic
resources, self-service provisioning, and cost transparency. Consumption of
cloud resources is enforced through resource metering and pricing models
that shape user behavior. Consumers benefit through leveraging allocation
models such as pay-as-you-go to gain greater cost efficiency, lower barrier to
entry, and immediate access to infrastructure resources.
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