Author:
Ivan Ivanov
Affiliation:
SUNY Empire State College, United States
Keyword(s):
Utility Computing, Cloud Computing, Internal-, External-, Private-, Community-, Public Cloud, Cloud Software as a Service, Cloud Platform as a Service, Cloud Infrastructure as a Service.
Abstract:
This paper explores emerging opportunities and challenges for endusers and corporations with the shift in the geography of computing services and applications. Recent trends in consolidated Enterprise Information Technology solutions have proven to enhance business efficiency when significant fractions of local computing activities are migrating away from enduser computers and enterprise servers. Data, Information Systems and Enterprise Applications are being removed from desktop PCs and departmental servers and are being integrated and packaged on the Web into “the computing cloud.” The shift from locally installed and maintained programs and systems to hosted services in “the compute cloud” affects the entire computational ecosystem, from the CIO to the end-user, software developer, systems analyst,
and IT/IS vendor. We may need to take a fresh look at Thomas Watson’s pivotal statement from 1943 “I think there’s a world market for maybe five computers.” There are several distinct
innovations towards emerging centralized computational mega-structures such as:
• Grid computing infrastructure, middleware and application services
• Virtualization for more transparent scaling of complex systems
• Utility Computing services and models
• Dynamic Resources and Computing in the Cloud.
Growingly companies seem to achieve business advantage from the recent IT transformations and different forms of Cloud or Utility Computing services. Conversely, many issues remain: how well do the new models protect our investments, business specific challenges, innovations, privacy, and information security?
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