Cliff Notes: Seagate whitepaper on cloud computing

How many of you read whitepapers?  If you are like me, you read the intro and the conclusion to get the jist of the paper.  If the jist tells me something I want to know more about, I take the time to read the whole thing. Seagate is known for cranking out whitepapers…technology reports on what’s new in the industry, how it impacts storage, what the implications are for hard drives.  Seagate has literally hundreds of whitepapers in its digital library, consider this the cliff notes version.

Whitepaper #1: Cloud Computing—A New Model for Delivering and Consuming IT Resources

The advent and growth of the cloud is a force to be reckoned with for storage companies like Seagate.  Although, the cloud will not replace the traditional data center, and it’s  broad adoption could take 3 to 5 years, it’s important to look at what is driving this change in how companies manage IT resources and, of course, data.  It’s important to understand how cloud computing differs from traditional on-premise IT, and appreciate that this change is good for storage. In addition, we must be well aware of the cloud business model, and why companies are adopting the cloud today.

The cloud is good for storage because it means application development and new an innovative ways to create, manage, distribute, and analyze data. It’s also demanding in that it differs greatly from traditional data centers. It’s designed for failure, whereas an on-premise data center is designed for fail-over. Off the shelf servers and storage systems may not address the demands of the cloud, meaning low-cost, purpose built solutions are needed. This means the business model is also different. Hardware providers have to compete in a faster paced environment, and partner with cloud service providers at an whole new level.  This fast paced relationship caters to the cloud’s pay-as-you-go adoption model.  Cloud service providers’ offerings are catered to companies that want to easily scale their cloud infrastructure, such flexibility is demanded by those supplying the cloud hardware.

The paper goes on to talk about What Makes Clouds Different and Seagate Technology Fits in the Cloud.

Other key resources in the paper:

• Kinds of Clouds
• Cloud Service Categories
• Figure 1:  Why Companies Adopt Cloud Computing
• Chart:  Cloud Data Center vs On-premise Data Center
• Chart: Seagate Technology Fits for Cloud Computing

If you are interested in learning more about the cloud, and Seagate’s take on its impact on storage, check out this paper.   You can also look at the various posts on Cloud Computing in the Seagate blogosphere.

Download complete whitepaper:  Cloud Computing—A New Model for Delivering and Consuming IT Resources

Related Posts:
Storage Effect Category: Cloud Storage
Inside IT Storage Category: Cloud Storage
SMB Blog: Why Channel Partners Get “The Cloud”