Cloud computing is most effective when it can be applied when needed. It’s like getting water from the faucet. You get the water when you want to. It flows when you turn the knob.
The hard part is finding the right cloud computing service. It’s not like at home. You have to go out and find the service. How you do that can be a task.
Data Center Map is a service that reminds us of Spotcloud, the new service from Enomaly, which we will be writing more about next week. Data Center Map offers a way to visually see where data centers are located that offer cloud computing services. It is financed primarily through advertising and commissions from brokering deals.
The cloud computing service is a new one for Data Center Map, which has historically provided a service that offers the locations for co-location and carrier services across 1,800 data centers around the world.
Data Center Map launched the new features to help people with the complex task of finding a service. They cite a recent study by IDG Research on behalf of Savvis that shows that 75% of companies will use enterprise-class cloud computing within the next five years. About 60% of those surveyed find it a daunting task to find the right cloud computing solution for their companies.
The service allows people to search across specific criteria such as geographic location or specific features. Companies may compare the services as well at a later point to other services.
- The real challenge for the customer is exemplified in the features that Data Center Maps looks for from providers:
- Physical data center locations
- High availability / full redundancy
- Minimum billing period
- Providers selling model (whether resources are bundled or sold separately)
- Scalability of server instances
- Guaranteed minimum CPU resources
- SAS 70 audit
- API access
- Availability of CDN services
- Availability of managed services
- Availability of free trial
- Availability of phone support
- Integrated backup/snapshot functionality
- Integrated load balancer
- Integrated firewall
- Operative systems supported (Linux, Windows and custom image installation)
- Technology: Cloud Management Platform
- Technology: Hypervisor (KVM, Xen, Hyper-V, VMware etc.)
- Technology: Storage type (Central SAN, local disk storage, distributed storage system etc.)
But overall, the service looks helpful. Would you use it?
