Matthew Ramsey| Business2community
What started as a secret and then an enterprise novelty has quickly gone mainstream. Chances are, your enterprise has caught on to cloud computing and seen several advantages. Easier and faster access to data is one of these. Nobody has yet come up with a reason this is not beneficial to the modern enterprise. The Web services which are easily accessible are numerous. The big names such as Google and Amazon have come up with some fairly versatile solutions over the past couple of years, expanding data storage and the resources available to run complex software applications.
Rackspace is yet another competitor in the cloud computing market, bringing to life the concept of cloud-on-cloud computing. Everything from cloud services you can outsource your infrastructure to, to configurations enabling business to create their own clouds, have been conceived. This company, however, has come up with OpenStack, a software platform that has brought businesses one step closer to in-house cloud computing. The single, open-source platform can span hundreds of different servers, converging processing power for applications used on the network.
The advantages of OpenStack are as follows:
a) Users can scale applications to reach as many users as can connect to the servers
b) A failed server does not impact the whole network; OpenStack will move the work being performed on one machine to a different, functioning unit.
c) Most uniquely, the software itself can run on OpenStack.
This is where the cloud-on-cloud concept comes in. Enterprises are not just able to run applications and access data in the cloud. They can deploy the software, expand it, and perform updates without adding infrastructure. Users can create applications and run services. Examples include Heroku from Salesforce.com, a cloud service that runs within the Amazon platform. The exception is that companies implementing cloud-on-cloud have many options for managing their cloud resources internally.
Expanding Processing Power
By using a software system such as OpenStack, your enterprise has the building blocks for creating a cloud. Multiples of these can be used to engineer a complex system for building software applications and accessing more servers easily. Higher processing power is advantageous for any large business. Experts also speculate that a cloud-on-cloud system will not only allow administrators to configure all machines from a central server. They will also be able to plug into the network using laptops and handheld devices, actually running the cloud on these devices.
A Boost for Competition?
The cloud-on-cloud concept, according to experts, has many possibilities. Competitiveness is certainly increased by the fact a business can operate more efficiently and has more flexibility in how it can run its network. Another benefit concerns organizations which create and sell cloud services. Doing so more effectively and quickly creates an edge over the competition that allows the service provider to grow with the demands of its customers. Businesses can quickly scale processing power to match internal and external demands. Cloud-on-cloud computing therefore adds versatility to an already high-demand and growing market, allowing your enterprise to find the most suitable platform and technology.
