Cloud computing: The new IT paradigm

Abstract

Cloud computing is becoming the new IT paradigm. After 50 years of development, the original idea of McCarthy to deliver information technology and applications as a public service comes to life. The secret sauce of this new development is a combination of commodity components (standardized and cheap), ubiquitous Internet connectivity, and virtualization technology of computing resources. After a few years of discussion and sometimes even disputes there is finally a solid and accepted definition of what cloud computing really is. But that's not all. Cloud offerings mushroom these days: from big global offering (Amazon, Google, IBM, and Microsoft) to very small, focused, and highly customized solutions. Economics of the cloud are promising, in particular for small and medium businesses, and public sector. Cloud solutions enable elimination of investment costs (no upfront investments in IT infrastructure and software licenses) and significant reduction of operating expenses (50% or even more). Some special solutions, like disaster recovery in the cloud, are for the first time viable for all enterprises. Economics of the cloud come from aggregation and sharing of common infrastructure as is the case for all public services: power distribution, public transportation, telephone services. In this article, we present a underlying concept of the first cloud offering on Serbian and regional market provided through Coming - Computer Engineering and Telekom Serbia partnership. Key differentiator in comparison to global offerings is a full customization of solution to meet user's expectations and a solid support that goes as far as full outsourcing of IT operations to provider (i.e. Coming CE). Also, we are willing to spark discussion about community cloud solutions that can serve many institutions otherwise unable to build their own IT services. We point directly at: local (community) authorities, schools and universities, public administrative services, to name just a few. Also, we invite academic community to critically assess how reality of the cloud lives up to promises made by service providers.