Open Group releases a book on reaping cloud's benefits
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Cloud Computing for Business gives companies and government organizatins the information needed to choose the right type of cloud and reap the most benefits from that decision.
The Open Group has released a book on how organizations can use cloud computing to gain business benefit.
The aim of "Cloud Computing for Business" is to give businesses and government organizations the information needed to gain maximize benefit from the cloud, said Chris Harding, director of interoperability for the Open Group, a consortium of companies working to develop neutral standards for IT.
Many benefits are claimed for the cloud computing, an on-demand model where computing resources are available as needed and users pay for those resources much like they would pay for household utilities such as electricity. Proponents of moving applications to the cloud cite greater agility, lower costs, improved security, reduced risks, easier compliance with regulation and better business continuity.
Analysts predict compound annual growth rates of over 25 percent in the cloud computing market, according the book.
“However, to realize the potential of this computing model, an organization must use the form of cloud computing most suited to its needs,” the book states. So the aim of "Cloud Computing for Business" is to give the information people need to help their companies or organizations do this and gain the maximum benefit from the cloud.
The book uses the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s definition of the cloud as well as NIST’s description of types of clouds and delivery models. There are even business uses case drawn from business and government, said Pamela Isom, senior certified executive architect with IBM Global Business Services and leader of the Open Group’s Cloud Business Use Cases Work Group.
For example, the Energy Department decided to replace the Cray XMP supercomputer accessed via the Internet with a cluster of Unix servers to lower costs and advance clustering technology. Researchers and their collaborators were demanding more compute capacity than was available on the existing Cray XMP.
“The business problem was to equitably allocate compute resources across a mixture of batch and interactive workloads, and to bill each project for the resources used. “Controlled anarchy” was the researchers’ term for the acceptable level of systems management,” the book states.
The book includes chapters on what is the cloud, why should organizations use the cloud, how to establish a cloud vision, buying cloud services, understanding cloud risks, building a return on investment from cloud computing and major challenges.
"Cloud Computing for Business" costs $58. Open Group members can download a PDF copy of the book for free.
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