Is SaaS the same as cloud?
From the customer’s perspective, it’s all the same. If it’s provided over the Internet on a pay-for-usage basis, it’s a cloud service. Within the industry, we argue about definitions more than is good for us. Customers look in from the outside and see a much simpler array of choices. Why is this important? It matters [...]
Security risks of multi-tenancy
To dispel some of the confusion about security and to help people evaluating whether to go multi-tenant, here is a quick overview of the main risks.
Cloud, it’s a web thing
Having read (hat-tip Dennis Howlett) Randy Bias’ article at Kendallsquare on Debunking the “No Such Thing as a Private Cloud” Myth I have to say — rather like the apocryphal Irish direction-giver — if I’d wanted to make a case for private cloud, I wouldn’t have started from there. Randy and I joined a civilized [...]
When will the crowd turn against private cloud?
Private clouds will be discredited by year end, I predicted yesterday. I was promptly challenged to put my money where my mouth was. Here’s my considered response.
Spare me your cloud security diatribes
If I read one more article about what MIT Technology Review in its January lead story is calling “the security problem inherent in the size and structure of clouds,” then I swear I am going to burst a blood vessel. This article is a classic of the genre, beginning with an absurd screed about “computer [...]
Cloud computing, so much more than multi-tenancy
I settled in for one of Marc Benioff’s legendary two-hour-long CloudForce keynotes in London yesterday morning (an abridged, snappier version of the nigh-on-three hour marathon delegates sat through at last month’s DreamForce, Benioff had assured me beforehand). As I listened, I thought about the role of multi-tenancy in cloud computing. The keynote hall was full [...]
Windows Azure and the many faces of cloud
One of the reasons it’s so difficult to satisfactorily define cloud computing is that people have many different needs and expectations from a cloud platform. To start a conversation about cloud — especially one that seeks to evaluate the relative merits of competing cloud platforms — without first identifying what needs are being met is [...]
Can the Economist entirely be trusted?
The Economist is debating the proposition, ‘This house believes that the cloud can’t be entirely trusted.’ A leading question, if ever I heard one, but clearly the outcome should be a resounding ‘No’ vote.
