What is cloud computing?

A cloud is a pool of virtualized computer resources that can:

• Host a variety of different workloads, including batch-style back-end jobs and interactive, user-facing applications
• Allow workloads to be deployed and scaled out quickly through the rapid provisioning of virtual machines or physical machines
• Support redundant, self-recovering, highly scalable programming models that allow workloads to recover from many unavoidable hardware/software failures
• Monitor resource use in real time to enable rebalancing of allocations when needed Cloud computing environments support grid computing by quickly providing physical and virtual servers on which the grid applications can run. Cloud computing should not be confused with grid computing. Grid computing involves dividing a large task into many smaller tasks that running parallel on separate servers. Grids require many computers, typically in the thousands, and commonly use servers, desktops, and laptops.

Clouds also support non grid environments, such as a three-tier Web architecture running standard or Web 2.0 applications. A cloud is more than a collection of computer resources because a cloud provides a mechanism to manage those resources. Management includes provisioning, change requests, reimaging, workload rebalancing, deprovisioning, and monitoring.

Check out the video below and my previous post on cloud computing to find out more.

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