Technology, Money & Questions

Cloud computing is not made up of a single technology, it is the evolution of various different technologies in their best of forms. It takes the best of a number of related technologies to provide a new style of programming. The Cloud computing model we visualize today is the cognitive diffusion of many radical technologies we already use or we already know of. Some of them are:

1) Traditional grid computing
Job scheduling across many machines for computational applications.
2) Virtualization
Virtual machines decouple operating systems from hardware.
3) Hosting
Computational infrastructure available for rent.
4) Software-as-a-service
Application availability through the cloud.
5) Utility computing
Packaged computing, application and storage as a service.

All of these technologies try to achieve various unique aspects with a single common base connecting them, they all presume the service based model. But, these technologies have their inherent disadvantages or rather, I'd say, shortcomings. For instance, if you take the traditional way of grid computing, it is very difficult to administer; Also, it lacks agility and robustness.

Because, cloud computing is at the convergence of many independent computing trends, any attempt to define cloud computing is relatively based on these existing technologies. To better understand the cloud, its characteristics and the expected behaviors, it is helpful to examine these technologies. While these technologies have contributed to the development of the cloud, they also fall short of the ultimate promise of cloud computing because of their inherent shortcomings.

We will discuss about all of these related technologies in detail.