Sorry for over simplifying the thermodynamics of the matter, I was talking about waste heat. Not heat that disappated because of actual calculations. I should have been more specific.

Youre not wrong the cloud is just a tool for the right job. Don't have time yo discuss deeper but you def know what you are talking about.

The cloud tooling builds the stack on demand for the platform of choice. Obv you arent going to be running AIX on x86.

Exactly. It's nice to see someone on /. gets it rather than spout dated uninformed rhetoric.

You are absolutely right and I take back what I said as being overly simplistic. Back in ARPAnet days there wasn't much an application layer. It really depends if you are looking at it from a transport layer or not. But since we're talking about cloud it's not useful or even particularly helpful to either argument to be overly broad about defining the Internet. I do suppose one could argue the cloud is definitely capable of exploiting favorable packet flows to exist wherever on the network- but it doesn't have to which is precisely my point..

I classify your comment as interesting. But it doesn't say one thing or another of the merits (or lack thereof) of cloud technology.

It just really pisses me off to hear people who think they know what they are talking about dismiss cloud as some revist of technology that has existed since the 70s. In a manner of speaking it is, but it is yet another layer of abstraction with new possibilities and conveniences and fewer disadvantages.

At the end of the day, pretty much (although not quite the same). To answer your question.... think of the cloud as next gen mainframe. Mainframes were very locked to the platform and specialized software. Consider this utilitarian agnostic computing.

Agreed, I call this the IT Pendulum.

Centralize ....... Decentralize ........Centralize .........Decentralize

I've seen it swing personally at least 4 times in my career.

Me either. You are wise to recognize this.

I totally agree with most of what you said?

Firstly, I did not miss what RUSS said. Lag and stutter is not a characteristic of a cloud it is characteristic of an inappropriate network connection.

Secondly, I still think you are too narrow. The Cloud is just as likely to be private as public. Virtualization alone doth not a cloud make you point out rather correctly. The cloud is automation layers to manage virtualization solutions and baremetal as a whole, automate management and deployment. It is about efficiency and accesibility for the enduser. It's about the possibility of exposing resources direct to users on demand.

No, the Internet is a place tied together by DNS on the TCPIP (and other protocols).

The network != Internet.

I have defined it consistently and several times. The Cloud is a collection of technologies for automated provisioning, portability between private, public and hybrid highly available clusters of both software and hardware. Did you know you can install what amounts to a 'cloud' on a single machine?

I also didn't call him an idiot, I said his oversimplification was idiotic (lazy and stupid) and the source of his confusion/apprehension.

The cloud is highly shared and redundant clustering that is automated and agnostic. It can be public or private.

It is not any one hypervisor. It is the automation of one or all hypervisors, and clustering of the technologies it hosts. It is automated provisioning and portability between private and public areas.

It is *not* just an ESX server.

No.

Actual KW saved by not running directly on metal, and squeezing every possible resource out of a highly efficient and redundant server.

It means asset depreciation is much lower, so server churn is much lower (less carbon, less waste less garbage), every watt is consumed rather than dissipated as heat. Every Watt that is consumed rather than dissipated is another watt of cooling that is not needed. It means common parts for all servers which leads to less manufacturing waste. The commoditization of CPU cycles instead of x86, P or IA hardware.

Seriously, please refrain from commenting on things you know nothing about, or can't even be bothered to take to its logical conclusion.

>All it is, is virtualized servers and services - absolutely NOTHING new here.

Absolutely wrong. It is Automated, Agnostic virtualization and services.

+1 for AC #47122881