Service Providers large and small have been delivering network-based services for decades, including infrastructure and software. These have come in the form of enterprise hosting, unified communications, managed security, and managed applications. In fact, it’s not a stretch to include traditional telecommunications services such as Voice, MPLS, and Internet access into a discussion on traditional network services, since networks are shared. Over years of delivering these services, technological advances have taken place, many without interesting names or marketing budgets tied to them.
Enter the newest headline-grabbing network service – “Cloud.” It seems the market still has differing opinions on how to define Cloud. I have heard professionals blur the lines by referring to Cloud as anything in the network, or by lumping it in with services such as managed hosting. Purists call it self-service and unmanaged. There are even sub-categories, such as IaaS, PaaS and SaaS, where even the lines between these blur. Even though there isn’t consensus on the perfect definition of Cloud, there is agreement that something important is happening.Is the Cloud New?