Cloud Computing is not the same as Utility Computing. I saw this, read a little bit about this but couldn’t understand in the first instance what the difference was. So, I set myself up to find out what the difference was. My Sources after a little bit of searching and figuring out were Wikipedia, Processor.comand Gigaom.com. Wikipedia doesnot go too much in depth in figuring out the difference between just these two and gives us a brief idea about the various forms of computing which are confused with Cloud Computing.
Cloud computing derives characteristics from, but should not be confused with:
-
- Source: Wikipedia
But this is a just a basic idea of what the basic forms of computing’s are, the one’s which are confused with cloud computing. According the processor.com:
“
Users and bloggers talking about cloud computing are referring to online services that abstract the user from the details of infrastructure, including physical computing resources, location, data partitioning, scaling, security, backup, etc. In short, cloud computing users want to avoid infrastructure. The provider is in complete control of the infrastructure
Utility computing users, conversely, are seeking a service that allows them to deploy, manage, and scale online services using the provider’s resources and pay for resources they consume. However, they want to be in control of the geographic location of the infrastructure and what runs on each server.
“Cloud computing is great and easy to use when performance and the selection infrastructure software isn’t critical,” says Armijo. “Utility computing users are control freaks; they like to know what they are running on [and] how it performs; they want to tweak their system and be in full control of the resources they are using.”
“
So, in a way, it can be said that Utility Computing is more for the power users who want more flexibility and want to treat the infrastructure provided as having them in house. However, Geva Perry in his post points out:
“
While utility computing often requires a cloud-like infrastructure, its focus is on the business model on which providing the computing services are based. Simply put, a utility computing service is one in which customers receive computing resources from a service provider (hardware and/or software) and “pay by the drink,” much as you do for your electric service at home – an analogy that Nicholas Carr discusses extensively in “The Big Switch.”
Cloud computing is a broader concept than utility computing and relates to the underlying architecture in which the services are designed. It may be applied equally to utility services and internal corporate data centers, as George Gilder reported in a story for Wired Magazine titled The Information Factories. Wall Street firms have been implementing internal clouds for years. They call it “grid computing,” but the concepts are the same.
“
Simply put, Utility Computing is more about the business model on which the computing services are based. Cloud computing is more a concept which gives a basic design of how the service needs to be designed. It completely depends on your IT team what you go for and what you are comfortable with.
Related posts: