Why Everyone is Running to the Cloud

By Teri Erickson, "The Cloud Chick", New World Applications.

Everyone's talking about "the cloud." IDC predicts the public cloud market will hit $72.9 billion by 2015.* Everyone says "Cloud", some even mean it such as our partner PVBS who announced their Software as a Service (SaaS) in the cloud this week, but is everyone clear on exactly what "The Cloud" is? Thanks to NIST (National Institute of Standards in Technology), we have a definition: "On-Demand access to resources, Broad Network Access, Resource Pooling, Rapid Elasticity, and Measured Service." In layman's terms, you have shared resources that can be quickly accessed; those resources can be added and subtracted in short order; and that provision can be gauged.

There is not just one cloud. There are public clouds, private clouds and community clouds. A public cloud is access to a set of servers in a data center whereby you have no knowledge of who else might be on that resource. A private cloud has a server(s) that only you have access to; there are shared resources such as the physical security of the data center, heating and cooling, but no one else is touching your system. Then there is the community cloud where an entity has in essence setup a private cloud but then adds other entities to access the system; there are other hands in the environment, but they know whose hands are reaching in.

What are the advantages of the cloud? Any solution with spikes in usage had to traditionally buy enough resource for its maximum capacity. Now, with cloud technology, you buy only what you need when you need it and apportion more resources when demand requires it, not before, and not after. The elasticity of the cloud allows for anyone to add and subtract resources on the fly. Additionally, those companies whose solutions have consistent usage utilizing a small amount of resources now don't have the cost burden of having to procure a server that provides more resource than is needed. Lastly, let's not forget the overhead of servers and the internal resources to run them. The cloud allows outsourcing to a 24x7 support staff that doesn't have vacations or sick leave. Also, in the cloud you don't have the overhead of owning the hardware; you rent it as needed.

The Cloud gets a little more complicated when you start dealing with Federal requirements (such as FISMA***) and the overall issue of security. Due to security concerns, for the time being, most success has been found in the Private Cloud model. It's easier to please a security officer when you can show some "cloud" elements, but still get your arms around who is accessing the system.

Teri Erickson, Sr. Director of Cloud Services, Public Sector, NEW WORLD APPS, Inc. is the "Cloud Chick" and one of the industry's foremost experts on cloud technologies.

* IDC: Public cloud market will hit $72.9 billion in 2015 By Larry Dignan | June 20, 2011,

**See full NIST Cloud Reference - http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/800-145/Draft-SP-800-145_cloud-definition.pdf

***Definition of FIMSA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Information_Security_Management_Act_of_2002