Getting On The Same Cloud

The cloud has most certainly perplexed folks -- I have never seen a disruptive technology cause so much confusion in the IT world. Today, I want to discuss the different faces of the cloud, not just public clouds, but also private clouds and internal clouds. Wait, what is an internal cloud now? So let's get on the same page shall we?

We are going to break them down into 3 categories and then go into sub-categories:

Public Cloud -- This type of cloud is often hosted by a service provider of some sort and comes in many different flavors of "xyz as a Service": IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and more. I've written on these types of clouds here.

Private Cloud -- This type of cloud, contrary to popular belief, does not imply a cloud which is built by you on- or off-premise. This type of cloud refers to your own private chunk of a public cloud. In other words, you go to a service provider and instead of subscribing to the shared public cloud model that they offer, you request that they carve out hardware and dedicate it to you, all the while they own it, manage it, etc. You get the benefits of public clouds, but you pay a premium for hardware isolation

Internal Cloud -- This type of cloud refers to a cloud that you build from a hardware and software stand point. It could be on- or off-premise in a co-location somewhere, but you are responsible for the hardware procurement, support, software procurement and support. This type of cloud is typically a highly virtualized, highly automated and orchestrated datacenter with self-service portals, catalogs, charge-backs and show-backs, etc.

It's important as we move into the cloud era that we use the same terminology so that we are on the same page when discussing these topics. It is also a good way when discussing the cloud with your friendly neighborhood value-added partner.

Posted by Elias Khnaser on 09/29/2011 at 12:49 PM