My views on “Classification of Cloud Computing Stakeholders”

Cloud computing: A data-centric business model

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According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology: “Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers,…

John Mayer At Dell World 2015!! (Oh, I’ll be there too.)

By G C Network | September 30, 2015

An artist who defies all boundaries, John Mayer has won seven Grammy Awards and sold more than 17 million albums worldwide. The singer, songwriter and guitarist’s skills have been widely…

Data-centric Security: The New Must Have

By G C Network | September 23, 2015

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Personal email:Pathway to Cybersecurity Breaches

By G C Network | September 14, 2015

As a business communications tool, email is the dominant option, and many corporations have policies that allow the use of personal email on corporate computers. In a recent Adobe Systems…

IEEE Cloud Computing: Legal Clouds

By G C Network | September 11, 2015

The new issue of IEEE Cloud Computing is now available!   This special issue looks at how to balance privacy with legitimate surveillance and lawful data access. Some of the…

Cloud hosting: Look beyond cost savings and weigh pros, cons

By G C Network | September 3, 2015

Is your company struggling with the idea of using “cloud hosting” in order to save money? Truth be known, using cost savings as the primary reason for moving to cloud…

“Cloud First” Lessons Learned from ViON

By G C Network | August 25, 2015

In 2011, then United States CIO Vivek Kundra released the US Federal Cloud Computing Strategy [1]. In the executive summary he pointed to cloud computing as a key component of…

Looking for Security Peak Performance?

By G C Network | August 19, 2015

You can find it at Dell Peak Performance 2015!!! I’ll be there at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas attending as a social media correspondent with a full…

The Cybersecurity Sprint: Are we safe yet?

By G C Network | August 7, 2015

UPDATE: NBC News reports U.S. officials have disclosed a hack of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff unclassified email system, which took place on July 25. Recent unauthorized access to a U.S. government database…

Cloud Computing + Things = “Information Excellence”, Not IoT

By G C Network | July 31, 2015

The Internet of Things (IoT) has quickly become the next “be all to end all” in information technology. Touted as how cloud computing will connect everyday things together, it is…

In “Cloudy Times”, Markus Klems is having a good discussion on how cloud computing stakeholders classify the various infrastructure options. I then thought that it would be good for me to repeat my input here as well.

When asked this question, I first describe three layers:

  • Layer 1 – Hardware virtualization – This is the “bare metal” layer of storage and CPU virtualization
  • Layer 2 – Application virtualization – This is when you use web services or APIs to provide a specific function or capability.
  • Layer 3 – Process virtualization – This is when you string web services and APIs together to deliver value (function or capability) to an end user

Different infrastructure terms can then be used to describe how these layers are put together:

  • Layer 1 is grid computing, utility computing or IaaS. The specific descriptive term is a function of the business model used to deliver the capability
  • Layer 1 delivered with layer 2 is PaaS. A developer uses the platform services or APIs to create value for an end user
  • Layer 1 delivered with a software application is SaaS
  • When Layer 2 and Layer 3 are designed with web services and layered on top of a hardware infrastructure (virtualized or not), you have a Service Oriented Architecture
  • Layer 1, 2 and 3 delivered with services and/or APIs already organized in workflows and delivering value to an end user is Cloud Computing.

As always comments or suggestions for improvement are welcomed. The approach is admittedly simplistic, but it does help me sleep at night 🙂

(Update: Michael Sheehan expresses a similar view in Cloud Computing: Introducing the Cloud Pyramid )

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G C Network