Cloud Computing Explained provides an overview of Cloud Computing in an enterprise environment. There is a tremendous amount of enthusiasm around cloud-based solutions and services as well as the cost-savings and flexibility that they can provide. It is imperative that all senior technologists have a solid understanding of the ramifications of cloud computing since its impact is likely to permeate the entire IT landscape. However, it is not trivial to introduce a fundamentally different service-delivery paradigm into an existing enterprise architecture. This book describes the benefits and challenges of Cloud Computing and then leads the reader through the process of assessing the suitability of a cloud-based approach for a given situation, calculating and justifying the investment that is required to transform the process or application, and then developing a solid design that considers the implementation as well as the ongoing operations and governance required to maintain the solution in a partially outsourced delivery model.

The easy way to understand and implement cloud computing technology written by a team of experts

Cloud computing can be difficult to understand at first, but the cost-saving possibilities are great and many companies are getting on board. If you've been put in charge of implementing cloud computing, this straightforward, plain-English guide clears up the confusion and helps you get your plan in place.

You'll learn how cloud computing enables you to run a more green IT infrastructure, and access technology-enabled services from the Internet ("in the cloud") without having to understand, manage, or invest in the technology infrastructure that supports them. You'll also find out what you need to consider when implementing a plan, how to handle security issues, and more.

• Cloud computing is a way for businesses to take advantage of storage and virtual services through the Internet, saving money on infrastructure and support
• This book provides a clear definition of cloud computing from the utility computing standpoint and also addresses security concerns
• Offers practical guidance on delivering and managing cloud computing services effectively and efficiently
• Presents a proactive and pragmatic approach to implementing cloud computing in any organization
• Helps IT managers and staff understand the benefits and challenges of cloud computing, how to select a service, and what's involved in getting it up and running
• Highly experienced author team consults and gives presentations on emerging technologies

Cloud Computing For Dummies gets straight to the point, providing the practical information you need to know.

“In this book, David Linthicum does that rarest of things: he manages to combine showing why SOA and Cloud Computing complement one another with a lucid game plan of how a business can take advantage of the synergies between them in concrete ways that will contribute to the bottom line.”

Massive, disruptive change is coming to IT as Software as a Service (SaaS), SOA, mashups, Web 2.0, and cloud computing truly come of age. Now, one of the world’s leading IT innovators explains what it all means—coherently, thoroughly, and authoritatively.

Writing for IT executives, architects, and developers alike, world-renowned expert David S. Linthicum explains why the days of managing IT organizations as private fortresses will rapidly disappear as IT inevitably becomes a global community. He demonstrates how to run IT when critical elements of customer, product, and business data and processes extend far beyond the firewall—and how to use all that information to deliver real-time answers about everything from an individual customer’s credit to the location of a specific cargo container.

Cloud Computing and SOA Convergence in Your Enterprise offers a clear-eyed assessment of the challenges associated with this new world—and offers a step-by-step program for getting there with maximum return on investment and minimum risk. Using multiple examples, Linthicum:

• Reviews the powerful cost, value, and risk-related drivers behind the move to cloud computing—and explains why the shift will accelerate
• Explains the technical underpinnings, supporting technologies, and best-practice methods you’ll need to make the transition
• Helps you objectively assess the promise of SaaS, Web 2.0, and SOA for your organization, quantify value, and make the business case
• Walks you through evaluating your existing IT infrastructure and finding your most cost-effective, safest path to the “cloud”
• Shows how to choose the right candidate data, services, and processes for your cloud computing initiatives
• Guides you through building disruptive infrastructure and next-generation process platforms
• Helps you bring effective, high-value governance to the clouds

If you’re ready to begin driving real competitive advantage from cloud computing, this book is the start-to-finish roadmap you need to make it happen.

"The promise of cloud computing is here. These pages provide the 'eyes wide open' insights you need to transform your business." --Christopher Crowhurst, Vice President, Strategic Technology, Thomson Reuters

A Down-to-Earth Guide to Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing: A Practical Approach provides a comprehensive look at the emerging paradigm of Internet-based enterprise applications and services. This accessible book offers a broad introduction to cloud computing, reviews a wide variety of currently available solutions, and discusses the cost savings and organizational and operational benefits. You'll find details on essential topics, such as hardware, platforms, standards, migration, security, and storage. You'll also learn what other organizations are doing and where they're headed with cloud computing. If your company is considering the move from a traditional network infrastructure to a cutting-edge cloud solution, you need this strategic guide.

Cloud Computing: A Practical Approach covers:

• Costs, benefits, security issues, regulatory concerns, and limitations
• Service providers, including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo, IBM, EMC/VMware, Salesforce.com, and others
• Hardware, infrastructure, clients, platforms, applications, services, and storage
• Standards, including HTTP, HTML, DHTML, XMPP, SSL, and OpenID
• Web services, such as REST, SOAP, and JSON
• Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Software plus Services (S+S)
• Custom application development environments, frameworks, strategies, and solutions
• Local clouds, thin clients, and virtualization
• Migration, best practices, and emerging standards

Shift happens. The unexpected matters. Remember how the retail book industry was slow to grasp an understanding of the Internet before it got ''Amazoned?'' Well, here we go again, only this time the shift could be even greater, and it's happening in the midst of economic turmoil. Right now, there's something in the air, something really big. It's so big that to many it's hidden in plain sight. To others it's as clear as seeing a cloud in the sky. In fact, that something is indeed the Cloud, the 21st century business platform.

Just as it was with that new-fangled ''Internet'' thing a decade ago, the Cloud and the technologies of Cloud Computing suffer from confusion and hype. And pat definitions won't do when it comes to understanding these two new buzzwords. But, as they are game-changing phenomena, business leaders--and the rest of us--must gain an understanding of what these terms really mean and how they will affect us, just as much as the Internet affected us all. In Dot.Cloud business strategy expert and former CIO, Peter Fingar, explains the main ideas of Cloud Computing in lay terms. Peter also does some old-fashioned reporting to bring together the ideas of the movers and shakers who are actively building the Cloud.

But this is not a technical book about Cloud Computing technologies; it's a business book. It's about what the Cloud portends for business ... about transformation in the ways companies are managed ... about business models for the 21st century. It's about how companies carry out their work in the Cloud instead of office buildings and skyscrapers, and how they manage their business processes in the Cloud. It's also about human interactions in the Cloud, and about the end of management and the rise of self-organizing, self-managed ''Bioteams.'' Even more, it's about unlocking human potential in business, about unleashing passion. All this points to your company's future, and your future, set in the context of the biggest economic downturn since World War II. So ultimately, it's about lighting a fire in you.

According to Jim Sinur, Vice President of Gartner, ''To say that we are living in interesting times is an understatement, and Peter has captured the essence of how business will work going forward. Dot.Cloud is both visionary and realistic in that each of the pieces of the vision have working examples today, but not woven together like in this writing. The goal of the virtual business platform is not just a dream, but attainable once all the contributing pieces are brought together. Peter brings them together here in a way that will work under any number of situations, across just about any industry.''

Gregory Simpson, Chief Technology Officer of GE, remarked, ''Dot.Cloud isn't just about the Cloud; it's really about embracing change in the workplace. It pulls together elements of Web 2.0, BPM and other dreaded three-letter acronyms, as well social and economic trends, to give you a vision for how harnessing the Cloud can transform the way your company works. Peter's unique ability to pull all of these concepts together in an understandable fashion make this a business book for the future, and the future is now!''

How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world's fastest growing software company in less than a decade? For the first time, Marc Benioff, the visionary founder, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com, tells how he and his team created and used new business, technology, and philanthropic models tailored to this time of extraordinary change. Showing how salesforce.com not only survived the dotcom implosion of 2001, but went on to define itself as the leader of the cloud computing revolution and spark a $46-billion dollar industry, Benioff's story will help business leaders and entrepreneurs stand out, innovate better, and grow faster in any economic climate.

In Behind the Cloud, Benioff shares the strategies that have inspired employees, turned customers into evangelists, leveraged an ecosystem of partners, and allowed innovation to flourish.

Cloud Computing: Implementation, Management, and Security provides an understanding of what cloud computing really means, explores how disruptive it may become in the future, and examines its advantages and disadvantages. It gives business executives the knowledge necessary to make informed, educated decisions regarding cloud initiatives.

The authors first discuss the evolution of computing from a historical perspective, focusing primarily on advances that led to the development of cloud computing. They then survey some of the critical components that are necessary to make the cloud computing paradigm feasible. They also present various standards based on the use and implementation issues surrounding cloud computing and describe the infrastructure management that is maintained by cloud computing service providers. After addressing significant legal and philosophical issues, the book concludes with a hard look at successful cloud computing vendors.

Helping to overcome the lack of understanding currently preventing even faster adoption of cloud computing, this book arms readers with guidance essential to make smart, strategic decisions on cloud initiatives.

Increase efficiency while saving money with “on-demand” computing

The biggest game-changing force in business since the creation of the Internet, cloud computing simplifies and lowers the cost of operations while providing flexibility and power you never dreamed possible. Make your strategic move now, with Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution!

"Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution is an important work that captures the concepts and technological advances fueling the rapid adoption of cloud computing today. It illuminates how specific core technologies have led to the emergence of those patterns as the foundation for the next generation of IT-managed infrastructure."
—Rich Wolski, Chief Technology Officer and cofounder of Eucalyptus Systems, Inc., and Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara

“Explains in marvelously plain English how clouds will change our world. . . . If the potential of cloud computing doesn’t excite you now, it will after you read this book. Buy a copy and put it on your CEO’s desk. Babcock explains it all.”
—Paul Gillin, bestselling author of The New Influencers

“A valuable primer and handbook. It will help you master the technology and follow the story as innovators craft the future of cloud computing.”
—Ted schadler, VP and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, Inc., and coauthor of Empowered

About the Book

Everyday business as we know it is poised for a monumental shift, courtesy of cloud computing—the biggest game-changer since the creation of the Internet itself. There’s no doubt about it: If you want to compete in the future, you must begin educating yourself about cloud computing now.

From InformationWeek editor Charles Babcock, a leading authority on the business benefits and pitfalls of cloud computing, Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution provides the tools every manager needs to create a new business strategy that harnesses all the power cloud computing has to offer.

Cloud computing is the equivalent of renting time on a computing infrastructure over the Internet, rather than building your own from the ground up. Access to the cloud is growing quickly, and the benefits are undeniable. Those who begin incorporating cloud computing into their business strategy will enjoy:

• Dramatic Cost Savings: The cloud makes available innovative technologies that would otherwise be too expensive.
• Ubiquitous Access: Employees can access the server power they need anytime, anywhere, and send it the program they want to run.
• Unprecedented Agility: Business processes and business infrastructures can be altered quicker than ever.
• Steady Traffic Flow: Even during peak loads, systems in the cloud can overcome bottlenecks and expand to meet the user’s needs.

Working on the cloud, your analysts, business intelligence experts, and researchers can access large-scale, high-speed, highly reliable systems while paying only for short-term use.

You didn’t set up your own electrical grid to power your computers. Why pay big money to use them when you don’t have to? The cloud is on the horizon, and it’s looming larger by the day. Learn how to take full advantage of it with Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution.