Is Cloud Computing just a fad?

Virtual Machines in Virtual Networks

By G C Network | August 4, 2008

One of the key value propositions in cloud computing is built around increase efficiencies. These eficiencies are diven by the use of virtual machines (VMware, XEN, etc.) and the automated…

SOA-R Interest Grows

By G C Network | August 1, 2008

Interest continue to grow in the use of cloud computing concepts for national security missions. Although some view the idea of a “private cloud” as an oxymoron, I personally see…

Microsoft: “Cloud Computing is the Plan”

By G C Network | July 31, 2008

From the Wireless Business & Technology Cloud Computing News Desk : “Ballmer highlighted software-plus-service, associating it with a ‘platform in the cloud and delivering applications across PCs, phones, TVs, and…

CC Tidbits

By G C Network | July 31, 2008

Interesting tidbits from Maureen O’Gara in Apple, Google, Yahoo & Cloud Computing: Industry gadfly John Dvorak is advancing a theory culled from the blogosphere that Microsoft wants Yahoo for some…

Correlative Analytics: Cloud Computing Google Mindshare

By G C Network | July 30, 2008

Correlative Analytics (A.K.A. “The Google Way of Science“) postulates that extremely large databases of information, starting in the petabyte level, may be sufficient to skip the theory part of the…

What is Cloud Computing? — Another view

By G C Network | July 29, 2008

Irving Wladasky-Berger, chairman emeritus of IBM’s Academy of Technology, recently wrote and article on cloud computing titled “What is Cloud Computing, Anyway?”. The following is my interpretation of a few…

Dark Cloud Computing

By G C Network | July 28, 2008

In his blog article “The Rise of The Dark Cloud” Reuven Cohen wonders about a growing interest in covert computing. Although he briefly mentions malevolent uses of the net, the…

July Military Information Technology magazine

By G C Network | July 25, 2008

This month’s issue of Military Information Technology magazine has the Army’s Chief Information Officer, Lieutenant General Jeffrey A. Sorenson, on the cover. The enclosed special report, titled LANDWARNET Transformation, has…

“The Big Switch” and Intellipedia Highlighted

By G C Network | July 24, 2008

During last week’s SOA-R session, Steven Armentrout referenced “The Big Switch” by Nicholas Carr as a very enlightened view of our changing world. On July 17th, Information Week’s Richard Martin…

Does anybody really know what cloud computing is?

By G C Network | July 23, 2008

Less than 2% of the CIOs in an Infoworld survey said that cloud computing was a priority. The surveyed indicated that server virtualization and server consolidation are their No. 1…

Last week I attended an IBM SOA event in Northern Virginia. While there, I was discussiing the merits of cloud computing with some interested attendees. Their key question was if cloud computing was just a fad or did it represent a disruptive change in the marketplace.

I personally believe that cloud computing is real and that this new view on infrastructure really is disruptive. To me, hardware (server and storage) virtualization technology, the virtualization of applications through SOA and the virtualization of data connectivity through ad hoc networking, makes cloud computing technology more than just a fad. While this concept isn’t new, technology to implement the concept is. Besides, would IBM invest so much into such an initiative without doing some due diligence of its own?

Last year, IBM demonstrated Blue Cloud in Shanghai which was the result of an initiative from IBM’s Almaden Research Center architecture. Blue Cloud was built on Xen and PowerVM virtualized Linux and a Hadoop parallel workload scheduling. Blue Cloud was also used to adopt service oriented architecture, Web 2.0 applications and other new technology breakthroughs.

Last year in his blog, Larry Dignan, the Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of TechRepublic said that the big takeaway then was ” The cloud is going corporate. And this enterprise relationship will be built on trust.”

I trust that IBM continues to do its due diligence, and this is definitely not a fad.

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G C Network