Cloud Computing is a hot term these days, but in truth it’s now lost most of its meaning. As with many technical terms, people use it to refer to a disparate range of concepts and practices. In the most general sense, it simply means the delivery of applications from remotely hosted computers – in business circles this is often called software on demand or Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The chances are, you will have come across this type of system before as a user if nothing else.

Cloud computing is an emerging way to deliver service-focused applications. For example, a travel company could use a single service for their flight booking process, with another for accommodation, and so on. To the user, these services will appear integrated as they are accessed through a single interface, but the processes implementing them are actually developed independently from one another. This is what developers mean when they say a system is “loosely coupled”.

The focus in service-oriented cloud applications is on implementing a set of business processes, with software components existing to deliver those services. Such projects aim to provide flexibility in the technologies facilitating the business processes, with enterprise seen as the primary consideration. This idea may sound intuitive, but it has represented a progression on some older development approaches.

In general, cloud hosted services are:

• Scalable, meaning they can grow or shrink to match demand.
• Delivered remotely over the web.
• Accessible by many devices.

With SOA is just one example of how the focus has shifted with development projects for enterprise functions, with cloud computing one of the patterns that has emerged from this evolution in development thought.

When a team of developers approaches a project, they have a range of options in terms of the technologies (programming languages, frameworks etc.) that they use to deliver the required system. In the past, there was a tendency to view any development project in isolation, as a task aimed at solving one or more particular problems.

The danger in this approach was that organisations sometimes found themselves bound to particular processes on account of their IT systems. In other words the IT in part limited, or even determined, what you could do, rather than simply serving what you wanted to do.

What has emerged is a trend for developers to make more of an effort to see projects within the context of enterprise. Rather than creating and formalising abstract models to use as the basis for computing systems, this enterprise-focused approach considers models for the business processes themselves, with the technology rightly seen as nothing more than a tool to deliver these.

The initial modelling phase in these projects results in a description of the enterprise services, and the developers can then work out how to use software to deliver them - essentially using business models as the basis for designing systems.

Enterprise oriented architecture is therefore aimed at maintaining a focus on the business processes a system is trying to serve - throughout the development life-cycle. When it's done well, the resulting applications are more adaptable, allowing businesses to cope with future change and to respond to new opportunities, knowing that their computing systems will be able to support their decisions.

So, what does cloud computing have to do with all of this? Cloud computing provides an extensive, flexible and affordable implementation model for service-focused systems, using technical resources that have never been as readily available on such a scale as they are now.

What exactly is cloud computing then? It depends on your perspective. To the end user, it means moving applications and data away from the PC, and onto the web – which doesn't tell you much about the platform. For companies who are inventing and designing the systems of the future, cloud computing is really about a new style of application hosting that is creating new possibilities.

The essence of a computing system is data and programming code. The difference between cloud applications and the traditional models relates to where these resources are stored and how they are served from there.

In the past, server hosting companies tended to offer a number of ways in which systems could be hosted:

• At the low end, you could simply host a web site on a shared server. This was typically the lowest cost option, but went hand in hand with the least control over your system's hosting environment- this can be unacceptably insecure for many companies.
• At the high end you rented a dedicated managed server. This was often the highest cost option, affording companies the greatest level of control as well as dedicated attention from the hosting perspective.
• Co-location was a half-way house where you provide the server and the hosting company supplies power, striking a balance between cost and dedicated services.
• Virtual servers allowed a hosting company to divide one physical server into multiple smaller functional servers, another way to strike a balance and minimise costs but still with inherent restrictions.

All of these options have disadvantages – the expensive dedicated options were costly and inflexible, once you’d agreed a package, changing was difficult. Co-location required a lot of in-house skills and still tied applications to a single physical location.

In 2006 Amazon introduced a new option – Amazon Web Services – which Blueberry considers to be the first true cloud hosting system. Amazon’s offering provides virtual servers, but they added a number of unique features:

• Servers could be rented by the hour, with no long rental agreements.
• The system was designed to support automation – rather than ringing a support person to create a server, a new server could be created via an online application or even under the control of another program.

Since the original introduction of AWS, Amazon has kept up a very fast rate of innovation, and AWS has evolved into a comprehensive platform. Lots has been said and written about AWS, a substantial chunk of it not accurate, as is often the case with emerging technologies, particularly when such a major company is involved.

Note that AWS is more than just a hosting platform, it provides organisations with new models for creating applications that can access vast amounts of computing power over the web.

The system includes development, management and administration tools beyond what you would get through traditional web hosting. As well as the standard user interfaces, you can implement custom applications for managing your AWS systems.

Over the past few years the Amazon service has facilitated some impressive success stories. In brief, AWS allows companies to minimise on cost, while maximising on flexibility and computation. The platform puts enormous potential computing power in the hands of people running virtually any size of enterprise, thereby creating opportunities and promoting innovation.

There are of course issues you need to consider if you're going down the AWS route, but the possibilities are pretty huge. See the Amazon Web Services* page for more information, including how Blueberry can help your business to make best use of the platform.

Given that the focus in enterprise oriented applications is on the business processes you're looking to implement, any capable development team has to be equipped with a diverse range of technological skills to choose from.

In addition to being readily equipped with this skill-set, Blueberry is happy to take a flexible approach to delivering services. Since we are not tied to one platform, set of languages or even methodology, we can implement bespoke systems using whichever technologies are best placed to serve your enterprise.

As a company, Blueberry is accustomed to understanding and facilitating enterprise processes, so we are especially well positioned to bring the power of the Cloud to businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Many forward-looking businesses have adopted flexible working practices in recent years, not just in terms of technology but also management. Cloud computing is perfectly placed to deliver internal IT systems in such contexts, for example in situations where personnel have no fixed workstations, and applications must be accessed from any location.

If you're in the market for a solution that will bring increased scope for experimentation with a markedly reduced level of risk, give us a call.