I am not an expert but I have been paying close attention to this area. This is just a primer. To me we should it break up into two areas: Real cloud computing and utility computing. However, they get lumped together because “The Cloud” is the such a buzz work right now. I think it is important to make the distinction. Thus the post.
Cloud computing
You can break cloud computing into two main areas. An end to end development platforms like Google AppEngine or the Windows Azure stack. The second bucket contains SaaS applications like Google Apps, MS Office online which is in closed beta right now or Zoho. We will not be talking about the SaaS apps.
As for as the DBA is concerned, the database is total abstracted. It is like your dev team is using an ORM but you do not manage the database behind it. This is where we get cut out.
Pros: No CapEX, less management
Cons: Immature technology, less flexibility
Utility Computing
Utility Computing is basically a virtualized instance of a OS. The administrator is still needed. It is just like a bare iron server install but the hardware is abstracted. It is transparent to SQL and the OS except for different hardware drivers. Companies that offer these services are Amazon with EC2, Terremark with Infinistructure\Enterprise Cloud and GoGrid.
Pros: No CapEX, more flexibility, full feature sets
Cons: Performance overhead do to virtualization. Licensing costs may apply.
Disclosure: I am employed by Terremark who offers utility computing.(even though we call it “The Enterprise Cloud :) )
posted @ Thursday, November 20, 2008 5:10 PM by Michael Sheehan
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