Who would have guessed?
Definitely not you or me (okay - I confess; you would probably have guessed) but in the last twenty two years - we have seen a leap in scope and scale of the Internet/web and by all accounts this evolution continues. This leap is a result of advancements and contributions made to the baseline by people like you (Yes; you - so stop looking behind you) building on the foundation laid by others.
The various buzz words out there - web 2.0, web services, cloud storage, SAS, PAAS, IoT - Infrastructure-On-Demand and so many others has created a head spin with the promise of more to come.
While it would be just swell to dwell in that sweet spot and focus on the "wonder" of these innovations (probably in another post) - I cannot help but look at the application of these technology because that is the REAL bottom line.
While these "Ohhh's and Ahhh's" moments are truly wonderful - the bottom line still remains:
How do we techprenuers (I love the sound of that) generate value and by extension income opportunities from the deployment of these new technologies?
My focus for this post is the on advent of the cloud - what it is and what it represents for the technology lovers out there?
What is the Cloud?
(Please -I beg of thee; whatever you do, don't go quoting the process of cloud formation and references to white fluffy stuff made of angel dust)
The cloud in a word of summary is: Infrastructure.
It is a representation of hardware and software components that have been abstracted - we no longer refer to the components - we refer rather to the grouping of components to deliver a service or achieve a task.
The cloud is the modern representation of service or infrastructure on demand. It means that companies no longer have to waste precious resources buying and managing server hardware, software components, power, space and rentals and other logistics to run or host their services or IT processes.
It means that a separate business entity has taken up the responsibility and dare i say calling for purchasing and managing the required hardware and/or software components. They also take away the various dependencies that would sometimes detract from the core business competencies of businesses out there.
At the heart of the matter - IT is a tool meant to address service requirements of clients and customers the world over - these clients are wholly interested in the services that they receive and not necessarily the technology behind them or associated complexities.
To customers and clients the world over - technology is often viewed as a black-box. They know it works but they would rather not be drawn into the under-the-hood details.
I know of banks and financial institutions that look like full fledged IT companies - in fact they own more technology than the IT firms that support them.
A lot of these resources are often under utilized and wasted.
Servers and mainframes waste CPU cycles, memory and hardware storage with burst based performance that might throttle down for long periods. Sometimes - these machines are largely under preforming and not running up to 25% of their full capacity. If a new service is to be launched - we just think: Gee - why don't we just buy more hardware. We don't need more hardware - we just need better utilized hardware.
It's no body's fault - we're all collectively guilty. Call it whatever you may - the attitude of simply sticking with what one has always known and not adapting until change is virtually crammed down our throats. We tend to force the smart ones who have already known the answers to shut up, to conform with that ignorant attitude of silence. Even if we're not interested in the core technology underpinnings - we still should look for ways of improving efficiency - the benefits are numerous - chief among them is cost savings and a quicker and less long term ROI (Return on Investment).
The carbon emission foot print of most firms is truly staggering. Power generation requirements to sustain such businesses to run 24/7 with 99.9% up-time is sometimes impossible to achieve under unforeseen circumstances that are often predicted but nobody seems to pay attention.
In comes technology to the rescue (hopefully under the guise of common sense).
Someone simply took stock of the waste and inefficiency and said:
The pre-cursor was always there - right under our noses.
The old time-slice based mainframes had it right all along; technology often borrows heavily from itself.
First was optimizations in hardware - single or multiple chip micro-processors (or brains) with multiple cores within each chip or chips (basically a brain with multiple mini brains all inter-linked) allowing certain cores (or brains) to be turned on or off as needed. Hardware made more power-efficient; better utilized CPU cycles - to do more in less time. Power requirements where monitored and brought under a lower thermal envelope.
Software wasn't left out either - codes were rewritten to take advantage of the optimizations and improvements in hardware. Utilize less CPU cycles and resources and therefore less power. In fact design principles dictate that often software should be designed for baseline hardware - this means that when placed on high end hardware - there is a significant improvement in processing speed - keeping resource allocation and utilization to a bare minimum.
On top of these foundations - virtualization came as the white knight.
It allowed us to abstract or "clone" multiple hardware stacks on the same or single hardware BUT as a software abstraction. Suddenly one server became two or three housed or "hosted" in one box. Suddenly efficiency and utilization was way up.
We could now utilize the same hardware used for typically one function for several functions.
Cluster computing also brought its own bag of tricks - allowing resources to be added or removed without having to bring the whole hardware down - meant always on hardware that was dynamically expandable. Storage, computing cores and memory were added as needed.
Management software to allocate resources to tasks, shut down sections that are not used and efficiently use sections that were running.
The last element was the commercial aspect. If big organizations found that after building these infrastructure stacks and apart from peak periods which are often not sustained indefinitely - the infrastructure was still largely under utilized - what happens?
Putting all these elements together: Virtualization, Cluster computing, Software as glue and suddenly the cloud is born.
Smaller organizations can now outsource their infrastructure - can buy what they need and expand accordingly. They can now focus on the core of their business and leave the technology and IT requirements to these cloud hosting organizations.
Data, information & systems can all be dynamically created, allocated and when done - decommissioned without the attendant technical hassle.
No more hardware management nightmare, system upgrades and maintenance, no more installation headaches or patches or fixes.
The cloud is NOT one single technology - it is an amalgamation of many technologies working together.
The cloud is not only about hardware or software - its is also about services.
It becomes a black box that is managed at a central location and availability is closer to the 99.9% target.
Clients simply handover their hardware and software worries and the "experts" take over.
Its capacity with convenience - IT management abstracted. The future - an IT department of one.
Stay tuned!
Definitely not you or me (okay - I confess; you would probably have guessed) but in the last twenty two years - we have seen a leap in scope and scale of the Internet/web and by all accounts this evolution continues. This leap is a result of advancements and contributions made to the baseline by people like you (Yes; you - so stop looking behind you) building on the foundation laid by others.
The various buzz words out there - web 2.0, web services, cloud storage, SAS, PAAS, IoT - Infrastructure-On-Demand and so many others has created a head spin with the promise of more to come.
While it would be just swell to dwell in that sweet spot and focus on the "wonder" of these innovations (probably in another post) - I cannot help but look at the application of these technology because that is the REAL bottom line.
The question is: What and how does this help businesses, companies and organizations out there?
While these "Ohhh's and Ahhh's" moments are truly wonderful - the bottom line still remains:
How do we techprenuers (I love the sound of that) generate value and by extension income opportunities from the deployment of these new technologies?
My focus for this post is the on advent of the cloud - what it is and what it represents for the technology lovers out there?
What is the Cloud?
(Please -I beg of thee; whatever you do, don't go quoting the process of cloud formation and references to white fluffy stuff made of angel dust)
The cloud in a word of summary is: Infrastructure.
It is a representation of hardware and software components that have been abstracted - we no longer refer to the components - we refer rather to the grouping of components to deliver a service or achieve a task.
The cloud is the modern representation of service or infrastructure on demand. It means that companies no longer have to waste precious resources buying and managing server hardware, software components, power, space and rentals and other logistics to run or host their services or IT processes.
It means that a separate business entity has taken up the responsibility and dare i say calling for purchasing and managing the required hardware and/or software components. They also take away the various dependencies that would sometimes detract from the core business competencies of businesses out there.
At the heart of the matter - IT is a tool meant to address service requirements of clients and customers the world over - these clients are wholly interested in the services that they receive and not necessarily the technology behind them or associated complexities.
To customers and clients the world over - technology is often viewed as a black-box. They know it works but they would rather not be drawn into the under-the-hood details.
I know of banks and financial institutions that look like full fledged IT companies - in fact they own more technology than the IT firms that support them.
A lot of these resources are often under utilized and wasted.
Servers and mainframes waste CPU cycles, memory and hardware storage with burst based performance that might throttle down for long periods. Sometimes - these machines are largely under preforming and not running up to 25% of their full capacity. If a new service is to be launched - we just think: Gee - why don't we just buy more hardware. We don't need more hardware - we just need better utilized hardware.
It's no body's fault - we're all collectively guilty. Call it whatever you may - the attitude of simply sticking with what one has always known and not adapting until change is virtually crammed down our throats. We tend to force the smart ones who have already known the answers to shut up, to conform with that ignorant attitude of silence. Even if we're not interested in the core technology underpinnings - we still should look for ways of improving efficiency - the benefits are numerous - chief among them is cost savings and a quicker and less long term ROI (Return on Investment).
The carbon emission foot print of most firms is truly staggering. Power generation requirements to sustain such businesses to run 24/7 with 99.9% up-time is sometimes impossible to achieve under unforeseen circumstances that are often predicted but nobody seems to pay attention.
In comes technology to the rescue (hopefully under the guise of common sense).
Someone simply took stock of the waste and inefficiency and said:
There must be a better way to utilize these computing resources.They were of course right!
The pre-cursor was always there - right under our noses.
The old time-slice based mainframes had it right all along; technology often borrows heavily from itself.
First was optimizations in hardware - single or multiple chip micro-processors (or brains) with multiple cores within each chip or chips (basically a brain with multiple mini brains all inter-linked) allowing certain cores (or brains) to be turned on or off as needed. Hardware made more power-efficient; better utilized CPU cycles - to do more in less time. Power requirements where monitored and brought under a lower thermal envelope.
Software wasn't left out either - codes were rewritten to take advantage of the optimizations and improvements in hardware. Utilize less CPU cycles and resources and therefore less power. In fact design principles dictate that often software should be designed for baseline hardware - this means that when placed on high end hardware - there is a significant improvement in processing speed - keeping resource allocation and utilization to a bare minimum.
On top of these foundations - virtualization came as the white knight.
It allowed us to abstract or "clone" multiple hardware stacks on the same or single hardware BUT as a software abstraction. Suddenly one server became two or three housed or "hosted" in one box. Suddenly efficiency and utilization was way up.
We could now utilize the same hardware used for typically one function for several functions.
Cluster computing also brought its own bag of tricks - allowing resources to be added or removed without having to bring the whole hardware down - meant always on hardware that was dynamically expandable. Storage, computing cores and memory were added as needed.
Management software to allocate resources to tasks, shut down sections that are not used and efficiently use sections that were running.
The last element was the commercial aspect. If big organizations found that after building these infrastructure stacks and apart from peak periods which are often not sustained indefinitely - the infrastructure was still largely under utilized - what happens?
Putting all these elements together: Virtualization, Cluster computing, Software as glue and suddenly the cloud is born.
Smaller organizations can now outsource their infrastructure - can buy what they need and expand accordingly. They can now focus on the core of their business and leave the technology and IT requirements to these cloud hosting organizations.
Data, information & systems can all be dynamically created, allocated and when done - decommissioned without the attendant technical hassle.
No more hardware management nightmare, system upgrades and maintenance, no more installation headaches or patches or fixes.
The cloud is NOT one single technology - it is an amalgamation of many technologies working together.
The cloud is not only about hardware or software - its is also about services.
It becomes a black box that is managed at a central location and availability is closer to the 99.9% target.
Clients simply handover their hardware and software worries and the "experts" take over.
Its capacity with convenience - IT management abstracted. The future - an IT department of one.
Stay tuned!
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