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| Cloud computing |
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| Jul 02, 2009 Published in technology
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 What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are provided as a service over the Internet (Ref: 1)
How does this affect me?
The key advantages are:
- Highly scalable
- Initial investment cost on data center is low: There is no upfront cost associated with buying physical servers, therefore initial cost is lower
- 100% managed services
- Data backups
- Running cost is dependent on usage only.
The key disadvantages are:
- Security: Since this is a shared resource, i.e. the physical servers/infrastructure is being shared; any loophole in the service provider’s data center can cause this issue. This can also occur if any malicious application finds/taps into the virtualization environment (Ref: 4, 2)
- No fixed standard, therefore proprietary integrations causes inter-portability (Ref: 2)
- Application code needs to be changed for certain aspects, which is specific to the service provider; therefore service provider determines the code change. Switching service providers becomes an issue (Ref: 2)
- Latest platforms not always available, for e.g. Windows 2008 not available on Amazon EC2
- Some platforms are still in beta, like Windows Azure
- Might end up costing more than traditional hosting platforms (Ref: 2)
- Not all OS/Web server facilities are available, for e.g. Remote administration not present on Mosso platform
How current solutions compare to what we need
RackSpace Mosso Amazon EC2 Microsoft Azure
Supports .NET 3.5 (SP1) Yes Yes Yes
Supports Windows 2008 Server Yes No Yes
Supports MVC & rewriting Yes No Yes
Supports SQL Server 2008 No No Partially
Direct file management Partial Partial NoUses proprietary implementation methods Partial Partial Yes
Supports remote management No Partial No
Direct connectivity and querying of SQL Server Yes Yes No (but should have it before going live)
Access to OS functions No No No
Interconnectivity between sub applications without using any additional functions/API Yes Yes No
Availability Live Live Beta
Allows installation of 3rd party components No No No
Allows installation of 3rd party applications like Office, PDF creators etc. No No No
Will get bound to the service provider? Partial Partial Yes
Deployment method FTP FTP Custom/Proprietary
Thoughts/recommendation
In the current state of cloud computing scenario, cloud computing would work for secondary services, SaaS applications, Web services etc. but not for a core application. This is because of lack of features available in nearly all current cloud platforms and use of proprietary technologies.
I would recommend looking at cloud computing again in another 3-6 months, once the entire scenario stabilizes more and service providers start providing more non-proprietary solutions. |
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