Comments on: Cloudy inquiry trends http://blogs.gartner.com/lydia_leong/2009/08/19/cloudy-inquiry-trends/ A member of the Gartner Blog Network Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:43:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Lydia Leong http://blogs.gartner.com/lydia_leong/2009/08/19/cloudy-inquiry-trends/comment-page-1/#comment-4462 Lydia Leong Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:55:06 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/lydia_leong/2009/08/19/cloudy-inquiry-trends/#comment-4462 Broadly, I agree. Gartner's position is that cloud is the IT delivery model of the future, and although a hybrid model will (and should) prevail for many years, the future lies in what we term tera-architectures -- true computing as a utility. It will be a long journey to get there, but the fundamental value proposition is sound. Broadly, I agree. Gartner’s position is that cloud is the IT delivery model of the future, and although a hybrid model will (and should) prevail for many years, the future lies in what we term tera-architectures — true computing as a utility. It will be a long journey to get there, but the fundamental value proposition is sound.

]]> By: Dr. William L. Bain -- Founder and CEO, ScaleOut Software http://blogs.gartner.com/lydia_leong/2009/08/19/cloudy-inquiry-trends/comment-page-1/#comment-4456 Dr. William L. Bain -- Founder and CEO, ScaleOut Software Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:36:41 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/lydia_leong/2009/08/19/cloudy-inquiry-trends/#comment-4456 Lydia, although the concept of cloud computing does carry with it inflated expectations today, it’s important to note that it’s a nascent technology which over time should become an integral and essential platform for hosting a wide variety of mission-critical business and scientific applications. If you look past the hype, cloud computing at its core can offer beneficial resources that are just too attractive to undervalue, such as offloading data center management and providing access to an elastic pool of computing. Moreover, the ability to virtualize these resources and consolidate them into a centrally managed data center offers enormous economies of scale and energy savings. We do agree with you that there are several key challenges today that must be overcome if cloud computing is to deliver on these expectations. For example, applications which run in data centers on-premises must be able to seamlessly and securely migrate into the cloud without the need to redesign their data storage architectures. Today this is difficult to do because security, deployment, and storage mechanisms are unique to each cloud vendor's infrastructure and distinct from mechanisms typically used on-premises. Once hosted in the cloud, applications also must be able to achieve their performance and reliability goals while running in a virtualized environment. Today's virtualized infrastructure needs to evolve so that it can precisely allocate the virtualized resources (CPU, memory, storage, and networking) needed by applications need to meet performance goals. With regard to storage, today there is no way to seamlessly migrate data into the cloud as an application scales from an on-premises deployment to an elastic set of virtual servers running within the cloud. Data must be packaged and staged in a cloud-based “blob” store or database server for retrieval within the cloud. For example, an active, e-commerce Web site cannot scale into the cloud and reach across to retrieve shopping carts that originally are hosted on-premises. ScaleOut Software is attacking this problem with distributed data grids than span multiple sites (e.g., on-premises and cloud) and transparently migrate application data where needed at all times. Once these early obstacles are overcome, we believe that cloud computing will offer an enormous opportunity to realize its full potential for efficient, scalable computing. Its unique ability to provide an elastic pool of computing resources will enable applications designed for scalability to automatically harness additional resources as needed to handle very large workloads. These applications will be able to effortlessly process very large data sets in parallel, which we expect to have a revolutionary impact on data analysis. As they say, the best is yet to come, and I would expect that the inquiries you are receiving will only increase as the benefits associated with the cloud materialize. Lydia, although the concept of cloud computing does carry with it inflated expectations today, it’s important to note that it’s a nascent technology which over time should become an integral and essential platform for hosting a wide variety of mission-critical business and scientific applications. If you look past the hype, cloud computing at its core can offer beneficial resources that are just too attractive to undervalue, such as offloading data center management and providing access to an elastic pool of computing. Moreover, the ability to virtualize these resources and consolidate them into a centrally managed data center offers enormous economies of scale and energy savings.

We do agree with you that there are several key challenges today that must be overcome if cloud computing is to deliver on these expectations. For example, applications which run in data centers on-premises must be able to seamlessly and securely migrate into the cloud without the need to redesign their data storage architectures. Today this is difficult to do because security, deployment, and storage mechanisms are unique to each cloud vendor’s infrastructure and distinct from mechanisms typically used on-premises. Once hosted in the cloud, applications also must be able to achieve their performance and reliability goals while running in a virtualized environment. Today’s virtualized infrastructure needs to evolve so that it can precisely allocate the virtualized resources (CPU, memory, storage, and networking) needed by applications need to meet performance goals.

With regard to storage, today there is no way to seamlessly migrate data into the cloud as an application scales from an on-premises deployment to an elastic set of virtual servers running within the cloud. Data must be packaged and staged in a cloud-based “blob” store or database server for retrieval within the cloud. For example, an active, e-commerce Web site cannot scale into the cloud and reach across to retrieve shopping carts that originally are hosted on-premises. ScaleOut Software is attacking this problem with distributed data grids than span multiple sites (e.g., on-premises and cloud) and transparently migrate application data where needed at all times.

Once these early obstacles are overcome, we believe that cloud computing will offer an enormous opportunity to realize its full potential for efficient, scalable computing. Its unique ability to provide an elastic pool of computing resources will enable applications designed for scalability to automatically harness additional resources as needed to handle very large workloads. These applications will be able to effortlessly process very large data sets in parallel, which we expect to have a revolutionary impact on data analysis. As they say, the best is yet to come, and I would expect that the inquiries you are receiving will only increase as the benefits associated with the cloud materialize.

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