Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is general term used for any thing that involves delivering hosted services over the internet. These services are broadly divided into three categories

1. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
2. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).
3. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).

Cloud has three distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional hosting. It is sold on demand, typically by the minute or hour, it is elastic –a user can have as much or as little of service as they want at any given time; and the service is fully managed by the provider. Significant innovations in virtualization and distributed computing , as well as improved access to high speed internet and week economy have accelerated interest in cloud computing.A public Cloud can sell services to any one over the internet. Currently Amazon web services is the largest public cloud provider. A private Cloud is proprietary network  or data center that supplies hosted services to limited number of people. Infrastructure as Service (IaaS) like Amazon web services provide virtual services instances with unique IP addresses and block of storage on demand. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) in the cloud is defined as set of software and product development tools are hosted on provider infrastructure. Like salefoce.com and GoogleApps are examples of PaaS. Software-as-a-Service cloud model, the vendor supplies hardware infrastructure, the software product and interact with user through front end portal.

SaaS has been attractive, because it removes all complexity from installation, deployment, maintenance, is globally accessible and affordable. By its nature, SaaS reside in the “Cloud” and overcome the traditional headaches of VPNs for efficient collaboration. As added bonus is transparent backups (assuming there is back up strategy).SaaS is great first step towards Cloud computing  but it is also has an important draw back :Control. For all practical purposes your data is not your any more. The SaaS vendor has full control over it; can mine it and can lock you out of it. For customer, this is generally not a problem, but for the Enterprise, it is a concern. In short SaaS, the vendor is in control, not the customer. For the early days of Cloud Computing that was an acceptable compromise, but time ‘ve changed and cloud has evolved.

Cloud Software: The Evolution of Cloud Computing.

Cloud software build on cloud infrastructure. Similar to  SaaS , Clouds software provides instant gratification , taken mere minutes to be up and running. Depending on Vendor , Cloud software is easy to maintain and update as SaaS, and is of course globally accessible. First question that comes into mind “Is Cloud Software going to replace SaaS?” The answer is ‘no’ for the simple reason SaaS works well when a single machine can services 1,000 to 100,000s of individual users, such as consumer setting. In the Enterprise , however Cloud software has big advantages. The premium is gain full control over your data and your infrastructure with cloud software is simply too low to give SaaS vendors the kind of control they have enjoyed so far. High value applications will transition to Cloud Software because customer want control, While SaaS will continue to supply free or low cost applications services.

Enterprise Provisioning vs Federated Provisioning

Deprovisioning both your people from apps you don’t control or your apps from people you don’t control. It is a big issue with SaaS (Software as-a-Services) and federated provisioning. It was Burton Group’s line who said “…..there should be no reason why deprovisioning from an application like salesforce.com is any harder then deprovisioing from LDAP. And it is truth