What is a "Cloud OS"?

Question

The term is getting 'hotter' with Microsoft Azure and Windows 7.
What are the benefits + how does the status quo of desktop computing now change? Does the machine no longer need an OS installation (or a highly stripped down version of a typical OS)... what is needed to interact with the 'Cloud' ?

Update: Received my first RTFM on SO today.
To elaborate.. I'm interested in knowing how different is the 'new way' w.r.t. the services provided by a typical desktop OS today (read Win XP/Vista, linux flavors galore, etc.)... NOT the benefits of cloud computing.

Answer 1

So far, it looks like the idea of having software & your data hosted at msft's data centre. SOA seems to be related to what cloud is offering.

No need to have local software (office will run from internet, your docs will be saved there. so that, you can access it anywhere). I think, the target could be big companies - thereby giving them services (software + hardware (data storage + processing power)) on subscription basis.

An expert can shed light on how this can be useful?
Will people be willing to put everything in the cloud?

Answer 2

Old school network diagrams always showed the internet as a cloud. Microsofts approach is still a client-server model, although a real 'cloud' os in theory would be a SOA architecture of loosely fit components interconnecting and working together without really being aware of eachother. Example: creating services for email, document authoring, file storage, etc- which could all be interconnected by different services that don't erally need to be aware of the final product.

So different way of thinking of it: the 'system' exists in the network- not one single location.

Gains: Transparency, redundancy (not only of each service, but for replacing parts if vendors drop out) and availability (as long as you are also connected to the network).

Losses: Vendor lock-ins, vendor's dropping out, interoperability nightmare, as far as I know- there are no real standards for this model.

Microsoft did not coin 'cloud' computing term. Please refer to the wikipedia entry for a more specific definition and etymology.

Answer 3

Two buzzwords.

Answer 4

whats with the RTFM questions on SO lately? unless I'm missing some deeper meaning, your questions are obvious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

Cloud computing is Internet-based ("cloud") development and use of computer technology ("computing"). The cloud is a metaphor for the Internet (based on how it is depicted in computer network diagrams) and is an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it conceals.[1] It is a style of computing in which IT-related capabilities are provided “as a service”,[2] allowing users to access technology-enabled services from the Internet ("in the cloud")[3] without knowledge of, expertise with, or control over the technology infrastructure that supports them.[4] According to a 2008 paper published by IEEE Internet Computing "Cloud Computing is a paradigm in which information is permanently stored in servers on the Internet and cached temporarily on clients that include desktops, entertainment centers, table computers, notebooks, wall computers, handhelds, sensors, monitors, etc."[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_Services_Platform

Microsoft's Azure Services Platform is a cloud platform (cloud computing platform as a service) offering that "provides a wide range of internet services that can be consumed from both on-premises environments or the internet"[1]. It is signficant in that it is Microsoft's first step into cloud computing following the recent launch of the Microsoft Online Services offering. ... The idea and push from Microsoft to compete directly in the software as a service model that Google's Google Docs have offered is increasingly seen by them and others as an important next step in application development. In this idea, a software doesn't have to be installed and managed on the user's computer. It also allows files and folders to be accessed from the web.

Answer 5

Basically its Microsoft's form of competition against Google's recent web-apps boom. So if you want to know what it's all about just open up google docs and gmail, and there you go :)

Now on a personal note, I'm glad Microsoft and Apple(Mobile Me) are trying to fight back against Google. We need the competition, so us the users can choose and get better apps.

Also I'm really not a fan of any corporation, so I'm not all that excited about Google killing off everyone else any more than Microsoft doing the same to others.

Answer 6

Cloud is Time Sharing. Us old timers remember those days. You either wrote your own apps and ran it on their (the Time Share/Cloud providers) systems or you use the software they supplied. Usually word processors and accounting apps.

Google Apps is cloud. And since you get HD space you can already serve up your own app running on their systems.

Time Share was all the rage in the 70's and 80. Cause maintaining a system of your own wasn't cheap. Back then the smallest system any company ran was a mid-range (like Honeywell, AS400, Dec, etc, etc). Fell out of favor as the PC became popular. I remember when Lotus 1-2-3 came out and everyone predicted it would destroy what was left of Time Sharing. And it (along with dBase and other aps) did.

It's funny how we re-invite everything.

PS: Forgot one thing about Time Sharing. Since the Net wasn't around, you had to schedule your time. SO your staff would go to the providers Data Center and work. It was like renting space and the systems. Time Share and Cloud operate differently, but the function is the same.

Answer 7

When Microsoft says Azure is a Cloud OS, what they mean is that it provides the same kind of services to developers targeting the "Cloud" abstractions that are akin to what a Desktop OS provides developers targeting desktop.

Amitabh Srivistava gave a great interview on Channel 9 explaining it. Basically, if you want to write a notepad application for a desktop user, you don't have to be concerned with writing code that interprets key strokes from the keyboard, or that sets up communications with a printer. This is due to the desktop os. Similarly, Azure lets a developer focus on their cloud app better by abstracting things like load balancing, authentication and authorization, failover, and a lot of concerns that one would normally have to address when developing for the Cloud.

Answer 8

Here is a overview of the cloud and the cloud OS that was posted earlier

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/240455/what-is-windows-azure#310541

Answer 9

Well like many new terms, there can be more than one answer. Frequently it can be defined as a compute platform, where the developer doesn't have to worry about resource management, scalability or hardware failures, because the cloud infrastructure handles it. Here is a link to some information the company I work for has:

http://www.appistry.com/resource-library/index.html

There are some good white papers linked here that might be helpful to you.

-Brett