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Cloud Computing: The On-Demand Model Has Been Available for a While

It's called z/OS on the IBM Mainframe which includes an OS built-in enterprise database DB2
By Jason Meiers
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August 18, 2008 05:20 AM EDT
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 4,231

Jason Meiers' Blog

Cloud computing is fantastic especially looking at how far Google has come in efforts to build an enormous cloud. Who wouldn't want to leverage Google's PaaS? Or throw enterprise apps onto it. Unfortunately/fortunately let's get back to reality.

We may not actually run production enterprise applications on an Internet centric cloud for critical business applications. The nice Facebook app, Spam app, Twitter and WebShop was nice although it is time to get real.

The good news is that the on-demand model has been available for a while in utility companies and large financial institutions. It's called z/OS on the IBM Mainframe which includes an OS built-in enterprise database DB2 that has been running secure and highly available transactions for decades.

Cloud and Mainframe release management for applications are different. Update a mainframe mission critical application that runs on a single box and your enterprise is up-to-date across all 256 CPUs. This doesn't work with the cloud. According to Google's distinguished engineers, applications pick up changes eventually over days or weeks. This is unsatisfactory for mission-critical applications.

Here are some IBM examples:
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/success/testimonials/index.html

Here are some Google examples:
http://appgallery.appspot.com/

Enough smoke and mirrors, if you have GOOG stock it may be time to go short.

Just my 2cents.

Published August 18, 2008 – Reads 4,231
Copyright © 2008 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By Jason Meiers

Jason Meiers is Senior IT Architect at CAM Solutions, provider of Composite Application Management Solutions for small-medium business and enterprise businesses

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