Everyone seems to be rushing to add the word “cloud” to their product lately. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison once famously called cloud computing “everything we already do”. I thought it was meritorious of a blog post to discuss what is and what is not cloud computing. The best way to start is to define the cloud. Cloud Computing is a high availability, multitenant architecture that allows for rapid scalability. So by defining what the cloud is, we can now look at what is not cloud. I have listed several examples below:
· A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is not cloud computing while it is multitenant, it is neither high availability or scalable.
· Shared hosting is typically not cloud computing, while shared hosting is multitenant and can be scalable, typically shared hosting is not high availability. There are an emerging number of Cloud Site plans that feature high availability and are competing with traditional shared plans.
· Most SaaS companies use the cloud for delivery of their applications but just because a company offers a SaaS application doesn’t mean that its cloud, although it usually is.
There are a number of varieties in how cloud providers deliver and bill for their service, for example a number providers have adopted utility billing. The key here is cloud computing is about the product, not the packaging. That brings us full circle back to Ellison, his statement was prophetic as companies in every industry have tweaked their packaging and called their product cloud. When they should have changed the product and actually made it cloud.
About Stacy Griggs
Stacy Griggs is Sr. Director of Customer Experience for Cbeyond Cloud Services , previously Stacy was the Vice President of Sales for MaximumASP which was acquired by Cbeyond in 2011. Cbeyond (NASD-CBEY) is a publicly traded provider of telecommunication and cloud services, which has been recognized by Microsoft at its 2009 Worldwide Hosting Partner of the Year and 2010 Hyper-V Cloud Provider of the Year. Prior to Cbeyond Stacy held a series of positions at Hosting.com including Chief Sales Officer, Chief Service Officer and General Manager for their flagship Delaware data center.
Stacy has led several information technology services companies over the last 15 years. He was a Managing Director for KForce a $1 Billion publicly traded professional services firm. At KForce Stacy managed 5 business units that collectively generated $18 Million in revenue and had 140 employees. Prior to KForce Stacy was a Vice President and part-owner of Diamond Technologies, an 80 employee custom software development firm. Previously Stacy held management positions at TMP Worldwide, the University of Pennsylvania, and Humana.
Through his theWHIR blog, Stacy will touch upon sales and service in the Web hosting space, web hosting events, cloud computing and industry trends.
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