intercloudUnderstanding the ‘cloud of clouds’

The next big thingIn 2012 the respected technology magazine Wired put the word

‘Intercloud’ on its jargon watch list.

That seems quaint now. Intercloud technology has exploded into plain

view, with innovators the world over scrambling to roll out products

that will harness the potential of what is obviously the next evolution

of computing.

With advances in Cloud technology sprinting into view at an unnerving

pace, anyone can be forgiven for feeling a little intimidated by the

changing ICT landscape.

But like the advent of the Internet itself, the rollout of Cloud

technology and the construction of a global Intercloud network will

not only revolutionise how enterprises do business, but will also

provide them with myriad opportunities to expand their businesses.

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Still don’t get it?There are already industries operating in a similar way to how the

Intercloud works.

In broad terms, mobile phone roaming illustrates the concept perfectly.

Your mobile phone service provider in Australia cannot provide you with

telecommunications services abroad.

On a business trip overseas you will find yourself moving between

different phone networks with a virtually seamless transition and no

interruption to service supply.

Another practical analogy is how the international airline industry works.

Different airlines (Clouds) criss-cross the world using agreed routes,

sharing airports, seat capacity, code-sharing, agents, offices, entering

into frequent-flyer alliances and investing in each other’s business to

enhance the passenger (customer) experience.

Hanging off the airline industry are a plethora of service providers —

travel agents, hotel groups, car rental companies, tourist bureaux —

who value-add to the travel requirements of the airline’s customers.

So you might fly from Brisbane to Helsinki via Hong Kong using Qantas to

start with and then switch to Finnair, arriving in Finland where you’ll have

an Avis car waiting for you at the airport which you use to drive to the

Holiday Inn in downtown Helsinki, where you have a booking for three

nights. All of that was booked by your travel agent in Brisbane after one

phone call from your PA.

Imagine if your enterprise could operate seamlessly across physical

and cultural borders in the same way? That’s the potential the

Intercloud offers.

What is the intercloud?The Intercloud is an interconnected global ‘Cloud of Clouds’ and an

extension of the Internet ‘network of networks’ on which it is based.

The term was first used in the context of Cloud computing in 2007.

Think back to the days when having a PC on every desk was a brilliant

advance in office technology, and then the Internet was developed and

all those PCs became connected to each other. It revolutionised almost

every aspect of our personal lives as well as the way every enterprise in

the modern world sold its goods and services.

An easy way to think of the Intercloud is to imagine that each Cloud —

whether public, private, or a hybrid of both — is like one of those early

standalone PCs, and the advent of technology and agreed protocols

enables them to interact with each other, forming a shared network.

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Tell me moreCloud computing delivers infrastructure, platform, and software as

services, which are made available on a pay-as-you-go basis through

subscriptions.

In the ICT world the buzzword acronyms associated with Cloud

computing are IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a

Service), and SaaS (Software as a Service).

Clouds aim to power the next generation data centres by building them

as a network of virtual services (hardware, database, user-interface,

applications) so that users are able to access and deploy applications

from anywhere in the world on demand at competitive costs depending

on user requirements.

They offer significant benefits to IT departments and businesses by

freeing them from the mundane jobs of setting up hardware and

software infrastructure and enabling them to focus on innovation and

enhancing the user (employee and customer) experience.

What will emerging intercloud technology mean for your enterprise?One Cloud provider might be able to virtually extend its physical

footprint (think airline code-sharing) by leveraging off facilities made

available by another provider.

A Cloud provider suffering from an outage or insufficient capacity might

be able to relocate customers to a competitor, the way one airline might

rebook a passenger with a competitor if experiencing a maintenance

issue, flight cancellation, or overbooking.

A customer would easily be able to run an application requiring more

than one provider, in the same way that a passenger traveling from

Sydney to Seoul might combine services from Virgin and then Korean

Air, transferring at a neutral interconnection point such as Singapore’s

Changi airport.

Customers would be able to compare what Cloud providers have to offer

and pick the best combination of price and availability the way a traveler

might use FlightCentre to research the most efficient and cost-effective

way of getting to Moscow.

Cloud providers should benefit from the customer flexibility afforded

by the ability to move data to and through competitors because it

eliminates the fear of being locked in to one provider.

Just as airlines try to ensure proper baggage handling, a commitment

to reliability among Cloud providers in the Intercloud will ensure data

travels smoothly and securely across providers.

Who is Vita Enterprise Solutions?As part of Vita Group, Australia’s most exciting technology,

communications and electronics provider, Vita Enterprise Solutions

draws on the insight, expertise and know-how generated from 20 years

of servicing the Australian market.

Over this time we’ve built an enviable record of technology and service

delivery. Our strong reputation comes from developing in-house

expertise and aligning with key technology and telecommunications

partners including Telstra and Apple.

We’ll match agile technology outcomes to your business requirements,

simplifying the process for you. From providing the right mobility

solution, increasing collaboration, transitioning to the Cloud or NBN, to

providing hardware and accessory solutions, Vita Enterprise Solutions

will partner with your business to deliver a personalised and fully

integrated end to end solution.

It’s comingA variety of emerging businesses, academic institutions, and industry

bodies are bringing this vision to life, including NASA, Cisco and open

standard organisations like Open Stack. It is clear that increasing Cloud

adoption is driving a rich ecosystem of industry players and initiatives

that will usher in this next stage in Cloud evolution.

Intercloud ready solutions offers great promise of enhancing an

enterprise’s Cloud experience and expanding to markets formerly out

of its reach.