It's time to rant about the use of the terms Private, Public, and Hybrid when it comes to Cloud Computing. I hate the terms, and think the sooner they disappear, the better Cloud can live long and prosper.
Hybrid is a great term for corn; less good for IT. With corn, it describes a decades-long, ongoing effort to improve yield and feed more people in the process. It is a genetic hybrid with a single goal.
With IT, and specifically with Cloud, the term Hybrid is the squishiest of all terms. It means nothing. Public and private are less squishy perhaps, but often used in a way that only confuses people.
Let's Take a LookWithin an Enterprise Cloud you'll find the corporate HR intranet (inc. the company directory, outline of benefits, insurance claim forms, tally of vacation days, personal IRA and related statements, and pictures from the joy-filled company picnic), the accounting software (including the dreaded expense account app), all the engineering stuff, and the supply-chain management system.
Within the Consumer Cloud, you'll find the corporate website, and with it, your online commerce system if you have one. The latter runs to everything from the hardy originals (eg, Amazon and eBay) to iTunes, Expedia, and anything else you would buy online.
Most companies will, therefore, have an Enterprise Cloud and a Consumer Cloud. They may have significant on-site IT, but farm out the website to an ISP. They may have significant on-site IT, but mirror it with Akamai and have Akamai do the heavy lifting to deliver video.
They may have abstracted and virtualized some or all of their online IT, utilizing their capacity more effectively and consolidating a number of servers. They have also contracted with a third-party to handle seasonal spike
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1 comment:
That's interesting Scott - so if most companies take and need both, is that a Consumerprise Cloud (aka Hybrid). Surely these don't stand alone.
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