Cloud Computing, another buzzword. Is it real or is it a dotcom bubble redux? Amazon, in trying to monetize some extra computing resources, may have created a brand new paradigm in computing. Or maybe it's the other way around. I don't know if they were the first, but they are arguably the most well known household name associated with cloud computing. I will assume the layman more likely will not be too familiar with the specifics of Amazon's cloud computing offering which they call EC2,
Elastic Compute Cloud. I wasn't so sure myself and I did a little research so hopefully it will help at tech-oriented cocktail parties.

Tradition was going to a computer store, Dell, CDW, et al... and spec'ing out a computer server and buying however many one needs. Getting it shipped, plugged in and the software setup, in a closet somewhere, or more recently in a data center. But now one can get a computer without going through that hassle. Amazon has lots of computers. so much so that it can "rent" out the excess capacity of its computers and, moreover, justify the creation all the overhead to effectuate the rental transaction. Point and click, drag and drop and one has built and can start using a computer.

The process is to spec out a computer and then "build" it in EC2. What
CPU speed and memory does one want, similar to going to Dell's website, or Best Buy. A 2 Ghz Core Duo with 4 GB memory would do fine for my home PC. In the EC2, it's about renting ECU's (EC2 Compute Unit) which is about 1 GHz of a Xeon processor. Ok, cool. And memory is memory, GB's these days. One rents an "instance" of some number of ECU's and memory. The faster the cpu and larger memory, prices are adjusted accordingly. After the "instance" is created, one then specs out and selects the operating system, Linuxor Windows, which Amazon calls an AMI, Amazon Machine Image. Thirdly, get disk space on Amazon's S3 (Simple Storage Service). And there is your computer.

Is this paradigm shifting? How does it differ from going to an outsourced hosting provider such as Rackspace? Or to a web hosting provider such as
GoDaddy? Does one care that a machine is physical or virtual, whether it is drag and drop or one pays some tech to turn it around in 24 hrs? Or is it really only the application that matters? Does anyone know anyone who's using it?

On another Amazon front, I have an Amazon Kindle and absolutely love it. I've read tons more in the past six months I've had it than before. Some not so good books, but mostly fun, good reads and occasionally a great one. Basically, it rocks. Instead of being a multipurpose device, it does one specific thing and it does it very well. Interesting model in this do-it-all world of devices.

Phillip Kim
M5 Networks