We are in our third week here at ReadWriteCloud. One of the weekly features we do is a poll about an issue related to cloud computing or virtualization.
Last week we asked if you plan to invest in virtualization. This week we are asking: Is a private cloud just a glorified data center? You’ll see the poll in the right sidebar of the main ReadWriteCloud page.
We had a pretty small sample to work with last week but the results show that virtualization is living up to its promise as one of the most important IT investments being made in the enterprise.
This week, the question turns to an issue that gets its fair share of debate. For detractors, private cloud computing is not cloud computing at all. It’s virtualization applied to a data center. It does not have the capacity that you get with a public cloud infrastructure.
From Andre Ye:
“And, the cost to expand that variability means additional capital expense for the company. That seems to run counter to some of the inherent benefits of cloud computing.”
Proponents, like Gartner’s Thomas Bittman, say the debate is a foolish one.
“There’s an argument over whether the term “cloud” can be used to describe the changes taking place in internal IT architectures. How silly! Regardless of the term, there is a major trend playing out over the next few years where internal IT providers want to make fundamental changes so that they behave and provide similar benefits (on smaller scale) as cloud computing providers.”
What do you think? Is private cloud computing for real?
