Dedicated to the belief that the cloud should be open

open cloud manifesto

What is Cloud Computing and Why

In order to understand the core principles of an open cloud, we need to first agree

on some basic definitions and concepts of cloud computing itself. First, what is

“the cloud”? The architecture and terminology of cloud computing is as clearly and

precisely defined as, well, a cloud. Since cloud computing is really a culmination of

many technologies such as grid computing, utility computing, SOA, Web 2.0, and

other technologies, a precise definition is often debated.

While definitions, taxonomies and architectures are interesting, it is more

important to understand the value propositions for cloud computing. We need to

understand how suppliers of cloud technology will come together to deliver on the

promise of cloud computing.

The key characteristics of the cloud are the ability to scale and provision

computing power dynamically in a cost efficient way and the ability of the

consumer (end user, organization or IT staff) to make the most of that power

without having to manage the underlying complexity of the technology. The cloud

architecture itself can be private (hosted within an organization’s firewall) or public

(hosted on the Internet). These characteristics lead to a set of core value

propositions:

All organizations have to deal with changes in their environments. The ability of

cloud computing solutions to scale up and down is a major benefit. If an

organization has periods of time in which their computing resource needs are

much higher or lower than normal, cloud technologies (both private and public)

can deal with those changes. The organization pays for the IT resources it

actually uses; it does not have to maintain multiple sets of artificially high levels

of resources to handle peak demands.

An organization of any size will have a substantial investment in its data center.

That includes buying and maintaining the hardware and software, providing the

facilities in which the hardware is housed and hiring the personnel who keep the

data center running. An organization can streamline its data center by taking

advantage of cloud technologies internally or by offloading workload into the