Stop Using “Cloud” Wrong and

Find Out What it Really Means

March 11, 2013 by Steve Leung 

“The Cloud” sounds like a mysterious and mystical place beyond reach and for that reason, and like so much business jargon, it is an overused term. People throw the term around without actually specifying what they mean. There are actually many types of clouds, in the sky and in computing. For private cloud computing, people need start defining exactly what service they are talking about. Even within the private cloud, there are different categories and Platform as a Service (PaaS) is one such sub-cloud. No longer will anyone look to the sky and see white fluffy cotton floating around.
The PaaS layer of the private cloud provides an agile, self-service, consumption-based resource which allows for sharing on an internal customer data center. This platform provides templates and tools which companies use to automate many processes that are usually done manually. Development and operations (DevOps) and administrators are then able to move quickly and more efficiently with fewer errors in creating custom applications or making changes. As previous methods have only resulted in wasted resources and a lack of centrality, DevOps is in need of a fresh approach.
Cloudy days
Everyone running middleware has the same challenges when starting projects. Developers need to be able to push out code frequently with small changes as the project progresses. They must perform this continually, and the changes eventually accumulate until the operations side experiences a bottleneck. Given the frequency with which code is being pushed out, operations teams are not able to support the developers. Projects are then halted or stopped, and money and time is lost.
Clouds and clear skies: a contradiction?

The benefits of the private cloud ultimately help to accelerate the benefits of DevOps and come at it from a different angle. The TIBCO Silver Fabric approach to DevOps limits the friction. As programmed code and changes can be pushed out in a controlled manner, companies like Qualcomm are able to build environments on the fly, thereby retaining agility and flexibility while keeping bottom line costs down.
However, that is also the crux of an unfamiliar contradiction. People want the best, but that usually means they will have to pay top dollar in order to get it. The private cloud is a lean initiative which ends up reducing costs over time with improved processes and services. Even IT departments that are not funded adequately can find salvation in such a minimally disruptive, cost-effective solution. Quality of service improves, and it’s cost beneficial. That’s a win-win, and cloudy days aren’t so gloomy with that kind of Silver lining.
To learn more on private cloud, watch the On-Demand webinar “From Virtualization to Private Cloud” featuring Forrester Research.

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