A paper on Cloud computing

ABSTRACT machines, that allow Support redundant, self-

recovering, highly scalable programming models that
This paper describes cloud computing, a computing allow workloads to recover from many unavoidable
platform for the next generation of the Internet. The hardware/software failures. Monitor resource use in
paper defines clouds, explains the business benefits real time to enable rebalancing of allocations when
of cloud computing, and outlines cloud architecture needed. Cloud computing environments support grid
and its major components. computing by quickly providing physical and virtual
Cloud computing is Internet based development and servers on which the grid applications can run. Cloud
use of computer technology, whereby dynamically computing should not be confused with grid
computing. Grid computing involves dividing a large
scalable virtualised resources are provided “services
task into many smaller tasks that run in parallel on
over the internet. Users need not have knowledge separate servers. Grids require many computers,
of, expertise in, or control over the technology typically in the thousands, and commonly use
infrastructure that supports them. The concept servers, desktops, and laptops. Clouds also support
incorporates software as a service (SaaS), Web 2.0 nongrid environments, such as a three-tier Web
architecture running standard or Web 2.0
and other recent, well-known technology trends, in applications. A cloud is more than a collection of
which the common theme is reliance on the Internet computer resources because a cloud provides a
for satisfying the computing needs of the users. An mechanism to manage those resources. Management
often-quoted example is Google Apps, which includes provisioning, change requests, reimaging,
workload rebalancing, deprovisioning, and
provides common business applications online that
monitoring.
are accessed from a web browser, while the
software and data are stored on Google servers. The What is a cloud platform?
cloud is a metaphor for the Internet, based on how it The coming shift to cloud computing is a major
is depicted in computer network diagrams, and is an change in our industry. One of the most important
parts of that shift is the advent of cloud platforms. As
abstraction for the complex infrastructure it conceals
its name suggests, this kind of platform lets
developers write applications that run in the cloud, or
INTRODUCTION use services provided from the cloud, or both.
Different names are used for this kind of platform
What is a cloud? today, including on-demand platform and platform as
Cloud is a term used to describe both a platform and a service (PaaS). Whatever it’s called, this new way
type of application. A cloud Computing platform of supporting applications has great potential. To see
dynamically provisions, configures, reconfigures, and why, think about how application platforms are used
deprovisions servers as needed. Servers in the cloud today. When a development team creates an
can be physical machines or virtual machines. on-premises application (i.e., one that will run within
Advanced clouds typically include other computing an organization), much of what that application needs
resources such as storage area networks (SANs), already exists. An operating system provides basic
network equipment, firewall and other security support for executing the application, interacting with
devices. storage, and more, while other computers in the
Cloud computing also describes applications that are environment offer services such as remote storage. If
extended to be accessible through the Internet. These the creators of every on-premises application first had
cloud applications use large data centers and to build all of these basics, we’d have many fewer
powerful servers that host Web applications and Web applications today. Similarly, if every development
services. Anyone with a suitable Internet connection team that wishes to create a cloud application must
and a standard browser can access a cloud first build its own cloud platform, we won’t see many
application. cloud applications. Fortunately, vendors are rising to
this challenge, and a number of cloud platform
Definition technologies are available today. The goal of this
A cloud is a pool of virtualized computer resources. overview is to categorize and briefly describe those
A cloud can: Host a variety of different workloads, technologies as they’re seen by someone who creates
including batch-style back-end jobs and interactive, enterprise.
user-facing applications. Allow workloads to be
deployed and scaled-out quickly through the rapid It has become more usefully characterized as a style
provisioning of virtual machines or physical of computing where massively scalable IT-enabled
capabilities are provided “as a service” to multiple appearing as a single point of access for all the
customers. Unlike previous IT licensing models, computing needs of consumers. Commercial
however, these ‘services’ are typically billed on a
offerings need to meet the quality of service
consumption basis (giving rise to other common
phrases such as ‘utility computing’ and ‘platforms- a- requirements of customers and typically offer
service’). More significantly, Cloud computing is the service level agreements, Open standards and open
next “turn of the crank” in IT data center paradigms. source software are also critical to the growth of
IT data center managers have been put to the test cloud computing.
over the years, being asked to respond to in-sourcing
(remember when timesharing was the only game in
1970), glass-house build-up (in the 1980s), server-
room build-out (in the 1990s), datacenter out-
sourcing (the shift in the 2000s), virtualization and
server consolidation (today). Cloud computing
combines the best of infrastructure utility out-
sourcing with the IT control of in-sourcing and the
lower-cost advantages of server consolidation. Cloud
computing is often associated with new Web 2.0
start-up companies. The best known Cloud
application is the Google search engine that, while
consuming huge amounts of processing power, never
needs to rely on database ACID rules or two-phase
commits. Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud hosts
start-up companies that provide photo sharing, phone
text message collection and redistribution services,
and social networking and collaboration. These
relatively simple applications built from scratch using
languages such as Python or Ruby need not adhere to
the critical uptime requirements of a traditional data
center processing payroll or controlling inventory. Tivoli Provisioning Manager automates imaging,
Nevertheless, Cloud computing is extremely deployment, installation, and configuration of the
attractive to traditional IT in the way that it can Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems,
convert the consumptive model of IT resources from along with the installation / configuration of any
a capital expenditure model to an operational software stack that the user requests. Tivoli
expenditure model. Instead of building out on- Provisioning Manager uses Websphere Application
premises datacenters, Cloud offers the ability to soak Server to communicate the provisioning status and
up excess compute capacity wherever it may lie. availability of resources in the data center, to
After all, it is always 3am somewhere in the world schedule the provisioning and deprovisioning of
and finding and using that capacity, thanks to high resources, and to reserve resources for future use. As
speed network infrastructure, can be very cost a result of the provisioning, virtual machines are
effective. Of course, the consumptive model of created using the XEN hypervisor or physical
controlling costs offered by Cloud computing is machines are created using Network Installation
nothing new to IBM data center managers, and many Manager, Remote Deployment Manager, or Cluster
of the significant trends we are witnessing in the Systems Manager, depending upon the operating
industry today have some very interesting parallels system and platform. IBM Tivoli Monitoring Server
and precedents in traditional data center evolution. monitors the health (CPU, disk, and memory) of the
servers provisioned by Tivoli Provisioning Manager.
ARCHITECTURE
DB2 is the database server that Tivoli Provisioning
The majority of cloud computing infrastructure as of Manager uses to store the resource data. IBM Tivoli
2009 consists of reliable services delivered through Monitoring agents that are installed on the virtual and
physical machines communicate with the Tivoli
data centers and built on servers with different
Monitoring server to get the health of the virtual
levels of virtualization technologies. The services are machines and provide the same to the user. The cloud
accessible anywhere in the world, with The Cloud computing platform has two user interfaces to
provision servers. One interface is feature rich --
fully loaded with the WebSphere suite of products – build on a cloud platform. As the Figure shows, the
and relatively more involved from a process direct users of a cloud platform are developers, not
perspective. For more information on this interface, end users.
One interface provides basic screens for making
provisioning requests. All requests are handled by Our experience with application platforms today
Web2.0 components deployed on the WebSphere comes mostly from on-premises platforms. A useful
Application Server. way to think about cloud platforms is to see how the
. services an application developer relies on in the on
premises environment translate to the cloud. To help
do this, Figure 2 shows a general model that can be
applied to both worlds.
Whether it’s on-premises or in the cloud, an
application platform can be thought of as comprising
three
foundation: Nearly every application uses some
platform software on the machine it runs on. This
typically includes various support functions, such as
standard libraries and storage, and a base operating
system.

A group of infrastructure services: In a modern

distributed environment, applications frequently use
basic services provided on other computers. It’s
common to provide remote storage, for example,
integration services, an identity service, and more.

A set of application services: As more and more

applications become service-oriented, the functions
they offer become accessible to new applications.
Even though these applications exist primarily to
Software as a service (SaaS): A SaaS application
provide services to end users, this also makes them
runs entirely in the cloud (that is, on servers at an
part of the application platform. (It might seem odd
Internet-accessible service provider). The on-
to think of other applications as part of the platform,
premises client is typically a browser or some other
but in a service-oriented world, they certainly are.)
simple client. The most well-known example of a
And while they’re not shown in Figure 2,
SaaS application today is probably
development tools are another important part of this
Salesforce.com, but many, many others are also
story. Modern tools can help developers build
available.
applications using all three parts of an application
Attached services: Every on-premises application
platform. To make this abstract model more concrete,
provides useful functions on its own. An application
think about how it fits with today’s most popular on
can sometimes enhance these by accessing
premises Platforms. The on-premises foundation
application-specific services provided in the cloud.
looks like this:
Because these services are usable only by this
particular application, they can be thought of as
Operating system:
attached to it. One popular consumer example of this
From a platform point of view, an operating system
is Apple’s iTunes: The desktop application is useful
provides a set of basic interfaces for applications to
for playing music and more, while an attached
use. By far the most well-known example of an
service allows buying new audio and video content.
operating system in the cloud today is Amazon’s
Microsoft’s Exchange Hosted Services provides an
Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). EC2 provides
enterprise example, adding cloud-based spam
customer-specific Linux instances running in virtual
filtering, archiving, and other services to an on-
machines (VMs). From a technical perspective, it
premises Exchange server.
might be more accurate to think of EC2 as a platform
Cloud platforms: A cloud platform provides cloud-
for VMs rather than operating systems. Still, a
based services for creating applications. Rather than
developer sees an operating system interface, and so
building their own custom foundation, for example,
viewing it in this light makes more sense here.
the creators of a new SaaS application could instead
Each development team is free to use whatever local oriented storage, while a Microsoft SharePoint
support it likes in this VM—Amazon doesn’t care. document library provides a more structured remote
The creators of one application might choose a Java storage service. Applications can also access a
EE app server and MySQL, for example, while database system remotely, allowing access to another
another group might go with Ruby on Rails. EC2 kind of structured storage.
customers are even free to create many Linux
instances, then distribute large workloads across them Integration: Connecting applications within an
in parallel, such as for scientific applications. While organization usually depends on a remote service
the service EC2 provides is quite basic, it’s also very provided by some integration product. A message
general, and so it can be used in many different ways. queue is a simple example of this, while more
complex scenarios use products such as IBM’s
Local support: Different technologies are used WebSphere Process Server, Microsoft’s BizTalk
depending on the style of application. The .NET Server, and others.
Framework and Java EE application servers provide
general support for Web applications and more, for Identity: Providing identity information is a
instance, while other technologies target specific fundamental requirement for most distributed
kinds of applications. For example, Microsoft’s applications. Common on-premises technologies that
Dynamics CRM product includes a platform address this include Microsoft’s Active Directory and
designed for creating a particular type of business other LDAP servers. On-premises application
application. Similarly, different kinds of storage are services, the third category shown in Figure 2, vary
used for different purposes. Raw byte storage is widely across different organizations. The reason for
provided by the file systems in Windows, Linux, and this is simple: Different organizations use different
other operating systems, while more structured applications, which in turn expose diverse services.
storage is provided by a range of database One way to think about these applications in the on-
technologies, including the Oracle DBMS, MySQL, premises platform is to divide them into two broad
Microsoft SQL Server, and IBM DB2. For on- categories:
premises infrastructure services, typical examples
include the following: Packaged applications: This includes business
software such as SAP, Oracle Applications, and
Microsoft Dynamics, along with a myriad of other
off-the-shelf products. While not all packaged
applications expose services to other applications,
more and more of them do.

Custom applications: Many organizations have a

large investment in custom software. As these
applications increasingly expose their functionality
through services, they become part of the on premises
application platform. When it’s described like this,
the on-premises application platform can seem quite
complex. The truth, though, is that this platform has
evolved over time. In the early days of computing,
the application platform consisted of nothing more
than an on-premises foundation. (Think of MVS and
IMS on an IBM mainframe, for example.) In the
1980s and 1990s, as distributed computing spread,
on-premises infrastructure services were added, with
remote storage, integration, and identity becoming
common. Today, with the advent of service-oriented
applications, on-premises application services have
become part of the platform. The next step in this
evolution is clear: providing cloud versions of all
three.
Storage: Like storage in the foundation,
infrastructure storage comes in various styles. A
remote file system might provide simple byte-
 sometimes change in significant ways. For example,
on-premises platforms are designed to support (at
FROM ON-PREMISES PLATFORMS TO most) enterprise-scale applications. Applications that
CLOUD PLATFORMS run in the cloud, by contrast, can potentially operate
at Internet scale, which requires handling many more
simultaneous users than any enterprise application.
While the same kinds of platform functions might be
needed in both cases, achieving this high scalability
can force a cloud platform to provide them in a quite
different way. In what follows, expect to
see some differences from the on-premises world.

CLOUD FOUNDATION
Like their on-premises cousins, cloud foundations
provide the basic local functions an application
needs. These can include an underlying operating
system and local support. Yet how cloud platforms
provide these functions differs from what we’re used
to, as this section shows.

Operating System
From a platform point of view, an operating system
provides a set of basic interfaces for applications to
use. By far the most well-known example of an
operating system in the cloud today is Amazon’s
Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). EC2 provides
customer-specific Linux instances running in virtual
machines (VMs). From a technical perspective, it
might be more accurate to think of EC2 as a platform
Along with describing on-premises platforms, the for VMs rather than operating systems. Still, a
general model just described can also be used to think developer sees an operating system interface, and so
about cloud platforms. And since on-premises and viewing it in this light makes more sense here. Each
cloud platforms can be used together, it’s important development team is free to use whatever local
to understand how the two work in concert. Figure 3 support it likes in this VM—Amazon doesn’t care.
illustrates this new world. The creators of one application might choose a Java
As the figure shows, a cloud application can be built EE app server and MySQL, for example, while
on a cloud foundation, just as an on-premises another group might go with Ruby on Rails. EC2
application is built on an on-premises foundation. customers are even free to create many Linux
Both kinds of applications can access infrastructure instances, then distribute large workloads across them
and application services provided on-premises and in in parallel, such as for scientific applications. While
the cloud. Just as on-premises platforms support the service EC2 provides is quite basic, it’s also very
today’s general, and so it can be used in many different ways.
applications, cloud platforms provide services for the
applications we’re likely to build tomorrow Local Support
In an on-premises platform (and in EC2), a developer
EXAMINING CLOUD PLATFORMS can mix and match parts of the foundation as she sees
Understanding cloud platforms means looking at fit. Choosing to use the .NET Framework on
each of their parts: the cloud foundation, cloud Windows doesn’t mandate using a particular
infrastructure services, and cloud application database, for example. Similarly, an on-premises
services. This section walks through these three application using the .NET Framework is free to
areas, using some of today’s most visible cloud access the underlying Windows operating system, as
platform technologies as examples. It is useful to is an application built on a Java EE server. The local
look at on-premises platforms and cloud platforms support functions in today’s leading cloud
through the same lens, the two aren’t identical. When foundations don’t work this way. Instead, a cloud
platform functions move into the cloud, they local support technology typically includes its own
storage, and it hides whatever the underlying
operating system might be. A developer choosing to foundation. Over time, expect this to change, as more
build on a particular local support option must accept and more cloud-based applications also use cloud
the limitations it imposes. There are good reasons for infrastructure services.
these limitations, of course. One of the things that
makes cloud computing so
attractive is its potential for scalability, but to make Storage
an application built on a cloud foundation handle Applications commonly use some kind of local
Internet-size loads requires limiting it in some ways. storage, which is why storage is part of both on-
By making the local support functions more premises and cloud foundations. Remote storage is
specialized, a cloud platform provider has more also useful, however, as the popularity of this service
freedom to optimize the application environment. in the onpremises world shows. Accordingly, it’s
Accordingly, each set of local support functions in reasonable to expect that providing a storage service
cloud foundations today focuses on supporting a in the cloud will be attractive for many applications.
particular kind of application. For example, Google’s As with on-premises platforms, remote storage in the
AppEngine provides local support for running Python cloud comes in different styles. For example,
Web applications. Along with a standard Python Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) provides
runtime, AppEngine also includes a hierarchical data basic unstructured remote storage. The model it
store with its own query language. exposes to developers is straightforward: objects,
Another example of a cloud platform providing local which are just bunches of bytes, are stored in buckets.
support is Force.com, offered by Salesforce.com. Applications can create, read, and delete objects and
Rather than targeting general Web applications, buckets. Objects can’t be updated, however—they
however, Force.com is aimed at creating data- can only be entirely replaced. This is another
oriented business applications. Toward this end, it example of how platform services must change to
provides its own focused support for data storage. support Internet-scale usage, something that Amazon
And rather than adopt an existing programming is clearly focused on. This simple but limited storage
language, this platform’s creators invented their own, service is much easier to make scalable than a more
a language called Apex. Microsoft also provides local fully featured offering would be. The trade-off is
support for applications in the cloud as part of its clear: Application developers get cheap storage in the
CRM Live offering. Based on the Dynamics CRM cloud, but they might need to do more work in their
platform mentioned earlier, this technology targets applications to use it effectively. Another approach to
data-oriented business applications, much like cloud storage is to support more structured data. In
Force.com. And like both Force.com and AppEngine, Microsoft’s SQL Server Data Services (SSDS), for
it includes both run-time application support and a example, a container includes one or more entities,
data store. Microsoft has also talked about its plans to each of which holds some number of properties, as
go further in this area, with a platform that will shown in Figure 4. An application can issue queries
support standard .NET development languages and against a container’s data with operators such as ==, !
tools. The intent, Microsoft says, is to allow =, <, >, AND, OR, and NOT.
portability of both applications and developer skills
between the company’s on-premises
foundation and its cloud foundation.

CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES

Whether they run on-premises or in the cloud, some
applications don’t need anything beyond a
foundation. Still, many can benefit from distributed
storage, common identity, and other infrastructure
services. We’re accustomed to having these services
provided on-premises today, but analogous services
are also provided in the cloud.
As the Figure showed, cloud infrastructure services
can be accessed by applications running on either an
on premises foundation or a cloud foundation.
Initially, the most common users of cloud It’s important to note that this isn’t a relational
infrastructure services will be on-premises, because database, and the query language isn’t SQL. Once
there aren’t yet many applications built on a cloud again, we’re seeing an illustration of how application
platform technologies change when they’re moved
into the cloud. This simpler approach is easier to use Identity
than a relational database—there’s no need to define Whether an application runs on-premises or in the
a schema up front—and it’s also easier to make cloud, it typically needs to know something about its
scalable. Amazon’s SimpleDB provides one more users. Toward this end, the application commonly
example of the value of structured storage in the demands that each user provides a digital identity, a
cloud. The way SimpleDB organizes information is set of bytes that describes that user. Based on what
similar to SSDS—it’s a hierarchy of domains, items, these bytes contain and how they’re verified, the
and values—and it also provides a non-SQL query application can determine things such as who this
language. Like SSDS, no up-front schema definition user is and what they’re allowed to do.
is required, and so the approach provides a mix of Many on-premises applications today rely on an on-
flexibility and scalability. premises infrastructure service, such as Active
Directory, to provide this identity information. When
Integration a user accesses a cloud application, however, or an
Is there any application left that doesn’t talk to at on-premises application accesses a cloud service, an
least one of its fellows? Connecting applications has on-premises identity usually won’t work. And what
become a staple of computing, and vendors have about an application built on a cloud foundation?
provided a plethora of on-premises infrastructure Where does it get its identity information? An
services to do it. These range from relatively simple identity service in the cloud can address these issues.
technologies like message queues to quite complex Because it provides a digital identity that can be used
integration servers. by people, by on-premises applications, and by cloud
As integration services move into the cloud, a range applications, a cloud identity service can be
of technologies is also appearing. For example, applied in many different scenarios. In fact, one
Amazon’s Simple Queue Service (SQS) provides just indication of the importance of this kind of identity
what its name suggests: a straightforward way for service is the number of cloud identity services
applications to exchange messages via queues in the available today. Accessing Amazon cloud services
cloud. Yet SQS once again illustrates what happens such as EC2 or S3 requires presenting an Amazon-
when a familiar on-premises service is recast as a defined identity, for instance, while using Google
cloud service. Because SQS replicates messages AppEngine requires a Google account. Microsoft
across multiple queues, an application reading from a provides Windows Live ID, which can be used for
queue isn’t guaranteed to see all messages from all Microsoft applications and others, while BizTalk
queues on a particular read request. SQS also doesn’t Services also offers its own identity service, which
promise in-order, exactly-once delivery. These can be federated with others. Developers don’t have
simplifications let Amazon make SQS more scalable, complete freedom—cloud platforms are frequently
but they also mean that developers must use SQS tied to a particular identity provider—but the need for
differently from an on-premises message queuing identity as a cloud service is clear.
technology.
BizTalk Services provides another example of cloud- CLOUD APPLICATION SERVICES
based integration. Rather than using message What’s the difference between an application service
queuing, BizTalk Services implements a relay service and an infrastructure service? To answer this
in the cloud that lets applications communicate question, think first about the obvious distinction
through firewalls. Cloud-based integration, such as between applications and infrastructure: Applications
connecting applications in different organizations, are designed to be used by people, while
typically requires traversing firewalls, and so solving infrastructure is designed to be used by applications.
this problem is important. BizTalk Services also It’s also fair to say that infrastructure usually
provides simple workflow support along with a way provides a general, relatively low-level service, while
for an application to register the services it exposes, applications provide more specific, higher-level
then let those services be invoked by any other services. An infrastructure service solves a broad
application that has permission to do so. Going problem faced by many different kinds of
forward, expect to see more integration services applications, while an application service solves a
offered in the cloud. Given the importance of more targeted problem. And just as it’s possible to
integration as an on-premises service, it shouldn’t be identify different kinds of infrastructure services, it’s
surprising to see its functions become part of the also possible to distinguish different categories of
cloud infrastructure. application services, as this section illustrates.
 adjuncts to existing Web sites that target users
SaaS Application Services directly, i.e., they’re cloud application services.
Users in most enterprises today rely on both
purchased and home-grown applications. As these Other Application Services
applications expose their services to remote software, Many other application services are available today.
they become part of the on-premises platform. In fact, almost any Web site can expose its
Similarly, SaaS applications today frequently expose functionality as a cloud service for developers to use.
services that can be accessed by on-premises Photo-sharing sites such as Google’s Picasa and
applications or by other cloud applications. Microsoft’s Windows Live Photo Gallery do this, for
Salesforce.com’s CRM application, for example, example, as do online contacts applications such as
makes available a variety of services that can be used Google Contacts and Microsoft’s Windows Live
to integrate its functions with on-premises Contacts. One big motivation for exposing services is
applications. As organizations begin to create their to make it easier to create mash-ups that exploit the
own SaaS applications running on a cloud functions of diverse Web applications. Vendors
foundation, those applications will also expose sometimes group cloud application services together
services. Just as packaged and custom on-premises under a common umbrella. The services for accessing
applications today are part of the on-premises information in Google Contacts, Picasa, and more are
platform, the services exposed by packaged and all part of the Google Data APIs, for instance.
custom SaaS applications are becoming part of the Similarly, Microsoft groups several of its services
cloud platform. together under the Live Platform brand, including
Live Search, Virtual Earth, Windows Live Contacts,
Search Windows Live ID, an Alerts service, a specialized
Services exposed by SaaS applications are useful, but storage service called Application-Based Storage,
they’re not the whole story. Other kinds of cloud and several more. The line between cloud
application services are also important. Think, for infrastructure services and cloud application services
example, of search engines such as Google and Live can sometimes be fuzzy. General cloud storage
Search. Along with their obvious value to people, services such as S3 and SSDS are clearly
why can’t they also offer cloud application services? infrastructure, for example, as are cloud identity
The answer, of course, is that they can. Microsoft’s services. A mapping service such as Google Earth is
Live Search, for example, exposes services that allow just as clearly application-centric—only certain kinds
on-premises and cloud applications to submit of apps need it—as is a service like Live Search. But
searches and get results back. Suppose a company an Alerts service might be considered infrastructure,
that provided a database of legal information wanted since it’s more generally useful, and Windows Live
to let customers search both its own data and the Web ID is definitely infrastructure, even though Microsoft
in a single request. They could accomplish this by views both services as part of its Live Platform.
creating an on-premises application that both Cloud platforms are a relatively new area, and so it
searched their proprietary data and, via the Live shouldn’t be surprising that defining a firm taxonomy
Search application service, the entire Web. It’s fair to is challenging. However you choose to view them,
say that not many applications are likely to need this it’s clear that cloud application services have an
kind of service, but that’s one reason why it’s most important role to play. Knowing what’s available in
accurate to think of search as an application service the cloud should be a core competency today for
rather than an infrastructure service. everyone who designs and builds software.
CONCLUSION
Mapping CONCLUSION
Many Web applications today display maps. Hotel A new kind of application platform doesn’t come
Web sites plot their locations, retailers provide store along very often. But when a successful platform
locators, and more. The people who create these innovation does appear, it has an enormous impact.
applications probably don’t have the time, interest, or Think of the way personal computers and servers
budget to create their own mapping database. Yet shook up the world of mainframes and
enough applications need this function to justify minicomputers, for example, or how the rise of
creating a cloud application service that provides it. platforms for Ntier applications changed the way
This is exactly what’s done by mapping services such people write software. While the old world doesn’t
as Google Maps and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth. Both go away, a new approach can quickly become the
provide cloud-based services that application center of attention for new applications. Cloud
developers can use to embed maps in Web pages and platforms don’t yet offer the full spectrum of an on-
more. And as with search, these mapping services are premises environment. For example, business
intelligence as part of the platform isn’t common, nor
is support for business process management
technologies such as full-featured workflow and rules
engines. This is all but certain to change, however, as
this technology wave continues to roll forward.
Cloud platforms aren’t yet at the center of most
people’s attention. The odds are good, though, that
this won’t be true five years from now. The
attractions of cloud-based computing, including
scalability and lower costs, are very real. If you work
in application development, whether for a software
vendor or an end user, expect the cloud to play an
increasing role in your future. The next generation of
application platforms is here.

REFERENCES

1. www.pcworld.com
2. www.seekingalpha.com
3. www.knowledge.wplarey.asu.edu
4. www.computerweekly.com
5. www.jobsearchtech.about.com