In August 2008 Gartner observed that "organizations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use service-based models" and that the "projected shift to cloud computing will result in dramatic growth in IT products in some areas and in significant reductions in other areas".
"Clouds" cross many country borders and "may be the ultimate form of globalisation". As such it is the subject of complex geopolitical issues, whereby providers must satisfy many legal restrictions in order to deliver service to a global market. This dates back to the early days of the Internet, where libertarian thinkers felt that "cyberspace was a distinct place calling for laws and legal institutions of its own"; author Neal Stephenson envisaged this as a tiny island data haven in his science-fiction classic novel Cryptonomicon.
Although there have been efforts to match the legal environment (such as US-EU Safe Harbor), providers like Amazon Web Services usually deal with international markets (typically the United States and European Union) by deploying local infrastructure and allowing customers to select their countries. However, there are still concerns about security and privacy for individual through various governmental levels, (for example the USA PATRIOT Act and use of national security letters and title II of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Stored Communications Act).
In March 2007, Dell applied to trademark the term '"cloud computing" in the United States. It received a "Notice of Allowance" in July 2008 which was subsequently canceled on August 6, resulting in a formal rejection of the trademark application in less than a week later.
In November 2007, the Free Software Foundation released the Affero General Public License (abbreviated as Affero GPL and AGPL), a version of GPLv3 designed to close a perceived legal loophole associated with Free software designed to be run over a network, particularly software as a service. According to the AGPL license application service providers are required to release any changes they make to an AGPL open source code.
"Cloud architecture" is the systems architecture of the software systems involved in the delivery of "cloud computing" (e.g. hardware, software) as designed by a "cloud architect" who typically works for a "cloud integrator". It typically involves multiple "cloud components" communicating with each other over application programming interfaces (usually web services).
This is very similar to the Unix philosophy of having multiple programs doing one thing well and working together over universal interfaces. Complexity is controlled and the resulting systems are more manageable than their monolithic counterparts.
"Cloud architecture" extends to the client where web browsers and/or software applications are used to access "cloud applications".
"Cloud storage architecture" is loosely coupled where metadata operations are centralized enabling the data nodes to scale into the hundreds, each independently delivering data to applications or users.
A "cloud application" influences The Cloud model of software architecture, often eliminating the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computer, thus reducing software maintenance, ongoing operations, and support. For example:
A "cloud client" is computer hardware and/or computer software which relies on The Cloud for application delivery, or which is specifically designed for delivery of cloud services, and which is in either case essentially useless without a Cloud. For example:
"Cloud infrastructure" (e.g. Infrastructure as a service) is the delivery of computer infrastructure (typically a platform virtualization environment) as a service. For example:
A "cloud platform" (e.g. Platform as a service) (the delivery of a computing platform and/or solution stack as a service) facilitates deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers. For example:
A "cloud service" (e.g. Web Service) is "software system[s] designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network" which may be accessed by other cloud computing components, software (e.g. Software plus services) or end users directly. For example:
"Cloud storage" is the delivery of data storage as a service (including database-like services), often billed on a utility computing basis (e.g. per gigabyte per month). For example:
Traditional storage vendors have recently begun to offer their own flavor of cloud storage, sometimes in conjunction with their existing software products (e.g. Symantec's Online Storage for Backup Exec ). Others focus on providing a new kind of back-end storage optimally designed for delivering cloud storage (EMC's Atmos), categorically known as Cloud Optimized Storage.
A "cloud computing provider" or "cloud computing service provider" owns and operates "cloud computing" systems serve someone else. Usually this needs building and managing new data centers. Some organisations get some of the benefits of cloud computing by becoming "internal" cloud providers and servicing themselves, though they do not benefit from the same economies of scale and still have to engineer for peak loads. The barrier to entry is also significantly higher with capital expenditure required and billing and management creates some overhead. However, significant operational efficiency and quickness advantages can be achieved even by small organizations, and server consolidation and virtualization rollouts are already in progress. Amazon.com was the first such provider, modernising its data centers which, like most computer networks were using as little as 10% of its capacity at any one time just to leave room for occasional spikes. They opened it up to outsiders as Amazon Web Services in 2002 on a utility computing basis.
A user is a consumer of "cloud computing". The privacy of users in cloud computing has become of increasing concern. The rights of users is also an issue, which is being addressed via a community effort to create a bill of rights (currently in draft).
A vendor sells products and services that facilitate the delivery, adoption and use of "cloud computing". For example:
A "cloud standard" is one of a number of existing (typically lightweight) open standards that have facilitated the growth of cloud computing, including:
Avant-garde music
Avant-garde music, or experimental music, is a type of music that is meant to push the boundaries of "what music is." It started in the 1940s and 1950s after World War II. Some famous avant-garde composers were John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Henry Cowell.
This was a song written by John Cage that is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of complete silence. It is meant to make the audience listen to the sounds around them.
This is a song by the popular English rock band The Beatles. It appeared on their album "The Beatles", also known as "The White Album" (released in 1968.) "Revolution 9" is over 8 minutes of random sounds, and someone repeatedly saying "number 9...number 9...number 9...number 9..." It was mostly the work of John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono.
This is a song by the American grunge band Pearl Jam. It is the last song on their third album "Vitalogy", released in 1994. It is over seven minutes long. It is made up of conversations between mental patients in asylums, and psychiatrists, with distorted bass guitar and drums laid over them.
Red deer