Business Intelligence and the Cloud: Strategic Implementation Guide

PART ONE

The Foundation

The convergence of cloud and the exponential rise in data are [sic] creating unprecedented opportunities for IT professionals, but [sic] it also is leading to an ever-increasing knowledge and skills gap in the IT industry.

—Tim Horton^*

There is much confusion over what cloud computing is. In Part One we review the technological history that brought us to cloud computing; then attributes and definitions of cloud computing are brought together to create a unified definition. We conclude by defining cloud delivery mechanisms and public, private, hybrid, and community clouds. In Parts Two and Three we will move into a discussion of how cloud computing can be used to deliver business intelligence.

^*Tim Horton is the head of the Cloud Computing Centre of Excellence at Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland; this quote is from the biographical information on his LinkedIn profile.