OP-ED: Cloud Computing @ UNC

In 17 years of working professionally in IT and now approaching 30 years total in my love for computers and technology, I have seen the killer apps come – some came some went. WAIS, Gopher, ThinClient, WWW, Distributed Computing, Parallel Processing, Beowulf, Appletalk, NeXT, mobile computing and the list goes on and on and on. Each having its own promise of changing how we access and share information and each always outdone by the next big thing.

While the concept of cloud computing is not a new one, it really is gaining momentum at breakneck speeds. This is mainly due to the marriage of “fiscal responsibility” and “resource consolidation” or better yet “responsible resource management.” Semantics and buzz words are all good and fun, but what about substance? We are moving at breakneck speeds to develop and implement a technology industry wide, but yet nobody can even agree on a definition of what cloud computing is. At least one word does not fit – responsible. We are pushing and shoving a technology without clear a definition and road map and that is anything but responsible. I will call it “irresponsible resource planning.”

Nothing new right? The difference this time is, this technology has the potential to become not just the next killer app, but as “killer” as E-mail and WWW were. Why? The potential to harness a “cloud” of resources that can be developed into anything you want it to be – virtual desktops, streaming applications, web farms, parallel processing for jobs, etc. You name it, it can be done. Think of it like a block of clay – it can be molded into anything you want. But before you begin, you have to have an idea what it is you want to sculpt and into what context your sculpture will fit.

Many of us are salivating over the potential of a cloud. But yet very few can really define what it is they wish to do with it. Some see competing interests in other similar ventures without understanding the application of those interests. Again, this is where the definition of cloud computing would be helpful – but a definition we at UNC need to make for ourselves. Unfortunately, one size does not fit all in the world of cloud computing. 

While I am a mere babe in arms in working with this technology, I have done extensive reading, had chats with some other folks in our world and participated in some forums, so I feel my opinion on this holds a little value ;-). I am seeing these factions within UNC already banging heads over which technology to use to define our “cloud.” All I say to that is “look to the sky” Is there only one cloud there? Of course there isn’t. Nor should there be one “cloud” at UNC or anywhere else for that matter.

So as to the implementation and application of a cloud here UNC, we really must first define the cloud or clouds. The very exciting part of this is we all get to define that cloud, faculty, staff, students – all one droplet at a time.