Page 59 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

THE AMORPHOUS CL OUD

scientists. Are these supercomputers automatically considered
part of the cloud as well?
No, they are not, at least not yet. Cloud computing con-
notes a business model of elastic resources being available on
demand to whomever needs them, without special qualifica-
tions, at low hourly rates. All of the examples just given were

previously reserved for a select few. Now, the cloud makes elas-
ticity available as part of a commodity service that is available
to every type of business, large or small. That cloud model
dictates a type of data center architecture that both can be
quickly expanded and is cost-effective for the resources put
into it. In cloud computing, building a cloud-based data cen-
ter on the network out of the most reliable but lowest-cost

parts appears to be a special skill.
For there to be a PC revolution, Intel, AMD, and a handful
of other chip suppliers had to master the art of producing mi-
croprocessors cheaply and make the process reliable as it ran
through millions of repetitions. These manufacturers pushed
forward the performance of their initially weak designs at
a rapid rate. “In the early ’90s, the continuing rise of micro-
processor performance made itself felt,” wrote Gregory Pfis-
ter, an IBM researcher who summed up the trend in his 1995

book In Search of Clusters.
Cloud data centers are built out of what are essentially per-
sonal computer parts, with memory, microprocessors, and
disk drives that have been perfected through the process of
being mass produced by the million, with ruthless competi-
tion weeding out any company that is prone to produce faulty
parts. A desktop or laptop microprocessor isn’t much to behold

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