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Hosted Cloud Servers

Cloud computing is a rapidly evolving trend that will have a profound impact on the way IT is delivered to business users. Cloud computing is the logical next step in the evolution of the data centre from mainframe to client-server, and now to clouds.

Cloud computing has several key features including: infrastructure sharing; scalability; self-service; and pay-per-use:

• Infrastructure sharing: Today’s enterprise data centres are characterized by fluctuating resource demands from a variety of users. Cloud computing enables dynamic sharing of these resources so that demands can be met cost effectively.
• Scalability: To handle ever increasing workload demands and support the entire enterprise, cloud computing must have the flexibility to significantly scale IT resources. Scalability and flexibility allow the cloud provider to fulfil, or at least come close, to the promise of unlimited IT services on demand.
• Self-service: Cloud computing provides customers with access to IT resources through service-based offerings. The details of IT resources and their setup are transparent to the users.
• Pay-per-use: Because cloud resources can be adding and removed according to workload demand, users pay for only what they use and are not charged when their service demands decrease

Server virtualisation and provisioning tools are key enabling technologies for clouds but do not provide cloud management. Server virtualization, with its ability to distribute workloads across servers, has been a major development in the path to cloud computing. Hypervisors abstract hardware dependencies and enable application portability. But hypervisors and VM management tools do not make for cloud computing on their own. In addition, not all applications can be virtualized, so some applications supported in the cloud may need to run on physical servers.

Cloud management software initiates automated resource provisioning and creates VMs as required. In addition, this software layer:

• Integrates cloud resources
• Incorporates management tools for cloud operators
• Provides self-service access for end-users to directly request compute resources
• Keeps track of the usage of resources for reporting, billing and auditing purposes