Increasing Functional Specificity over Increasingly Commoditized Hardware - Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers - page 1

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Increasing Functional Specificity over
Increasingly Commoditized Hardware
A move toward clouds represents a fundamental change in how we handle
information. It is almost the computing equivalent of the evolution in elec-
tricity supply from a hundred years ago, when farms and businesses closed
down their own power generators and bought power instead from efficient
industrial utilities. Until the end of the nineteenth century, businesses had
to run their own power-generating facilities, producing all the energy to
run their machinery. As industrial technology advanced, generators grew
more sophisticated but were still located at the site of a business and main-
tained by its employees. Power generation was assumed to be an intrinsic
part of running a business (much as data processing is now). The invention
of the alternating-current electric grid at the turn of the century overturned
that assumption. Supplying electricity to many users from central stations
achieved huge economies of scale, and the price of electricity fell rapidly.
The transformation in the supply of computing promises to be as dramatic
as that in electricity supply (Figure 1.1).
1.1 Google's Vision of Utility Computing
The electricity utility comparison model fits neatly with Google's grand
vision, established a decade ago, to organize the world's information and make
it universally accessible . While its software and search strategy has already
undermined Microsoft's dominance, Google has further plans to reshape the
sector based on its search strengths. Google does not just use its comput-
ing grid to process Web searches but also to supply services such as word
processing, spreadsheet, and e-mail programs—applications that have long
been the mainstays of Microsoft's profitability. By supplying business com-
puting as a set of simple services, Google (and other utility providers like
Salesforce.com and Amazon Web Services) threatens to render large parts
of the IT industry obsolete. Google operates a globe-spanning network of
computers that answer search queries instantly by processing mountains
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