Turning it into a Raw Commodity

It is already quite clear that cloud computing is emerging as the dominant new technological model for computer systems. The models it supplants, just as, notably, the client-server model, entailed tight connections between hardware and software and between systems and users. Computers and related gear were dedicated to particular applications, and those applications were dedicated to particular individuals or groups. These models were, as a result, highly fragmented, characterized by redundant assets and investments and low levels of capacity utilization. The cloud model, opposite, is built on the assumption of sharing, in particular the pooling of assets to support a diversity of uses and users. Hardware is shared flexibly by applications, and applications are shared flexibly among heterogeneous users. As with any utility system, the shared, or multi-tenant, infrastructure dramatically reduces redundancy, improves utilization, and in general capitalizes on scale economies.

As defined by the National Institute of Standards and Innovation, the emerging cloud model has five essential characteristics, all of which relate to the flexible sharing of assets: