Ok, so for those of you who don’t know what it is, here’s the Wikipedia definition: The computing resources being accessed are typically owned and operated by a third-party provider on a consolidated basis in Data Center locations. Target consumers are not concerned with the underlying technologies used to achieve the increase in server capability, and is sold simply as a service available on demand. Check out this Business Week article on how it works.
And why I love it… Force.com’s tagline says it best “Finally, Focus on Innovation, Not Infrastructure“. What this basically means is that application creators can focus on the experience the app provides to the end users and don’t have to worry about scalability, it’s taken care of by the service provider. It significantly lowers the barrier to entry for internet startups. Power to the people.… yeah!
Google App Engine, Amazon Web Services and Force.com are the top vendors for cloud computing as of now.
Although I’m focusing on it from an application developer’s perspective, it has lot more applications for the enterprise. Check out how cloud computing is enabling enterprise 2.0 here and here
But how is it different from SaaS, you ask? Well, here you go.
RSS Feed
2 responses so far ↓
Alex Glassey // August 8, 2008 at 4:59 am |
Hey Sachendra,
Not so sure that software vendors can ignore scalability. Much of scalability is impacted by selection of DB, DB design, and back-end architecture. If all you want is a few hundred concurrent users then you may be correct. However, anybody who is serious about their application running well and efficiently under significant load had better be thinking about scalability and not just the app’s end-user experience.
By the way, aren’t performance and responsiveness a big part of the end-user experience?
Keep on SaaSing!
Alex
Sachendra Yadav // August 8, 2008 at 3:28 pm |
Alex,
Agree with you on all points. The point I was trying to make was that infrastructure scalability is a big issue and that’s one less thing to worry about. Imagine where Twitter would be if its designers and architects didn’t have to spend the past 6 months dealing with down times.