What’s the “Cloud” or better “What’s not a Cloud”

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On analyst (and very active Tweeter on https://twitter.com/monkchips) quite a while ago (March 08) published a post, which we recently drew up in one of the cloud discussions:

  • If you peel back the label and its says “Grid” or “ OGSA ” underneath… its not a cloud.
  • If you need to send a 40 page requirements document to the vendor then… it is not cloud.
  • If you can’t buy it on your personal credit card… it is not a cloud
  • If they are trying to sell you hardware… its not a cloud.
  • If there is no API… its not a cloud.
  • If you need to rearchitect your systems for it… Its not a cloud.
  • If it takes more than ten minutes to provision… its not a cloud.
  • If you can’t deprovision in less than ten minutes… its not a cloud.
  • If you know where the machines are… its not a cloud.
  • If there is a consultant in the room… its not a cloud.
  • If you need to specify the number of machines you want upfront… its not a cloud.
  • If it only runs one operating system… its not a cloud.
  • If you can’t connect to it from your own machine… its not a cloud.
  • If you need to install software to use it… its not a cloud.
  • If you own all the hardware… its not a cloud.
  • If it takes 20 slides to explain…. its not a cloud [update: 4:58 4th February 2009]

I just love it (the post is on https://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2008/03/13/15-ways-to-tell-its-not-cloud-computing/)

Roger