Cisco Data Center Fundamentals

Chapter 21

Cloud Computing

The book so far has covered the different components of the data center, how they integrate and interact with each other, and how the utilization of the resources is maximized through abstraction and virtualization, with the sole purpose of creating the environment in which the applications will run. This whole stack—starting with the physical infrastructure, building through the operating systems, the required middleware, up to the applications—is the de facto data center.

It is particularly important to understand the driving mechanisms for the evolution of the data center. This will clarify the current stage of data center development—cloud computing, or “the cloud.”

This chapter discusses cloud computing, its definitions ...