A Brief Guide to Cloud Computing -- 1

A Brief Guide to Cloud Computing

云计算导论

Chapter 1、THE RISE OF FLUFFY COMPUTING

This book is being written in the cloud. This means that my word processor is not installed on my computer. The files for each chapter are also not being saved on one of my own hard disks or USB keys. Instead, the program I am using is running somewhere ‘out there’ on the Internet. My files are then being saved to remote online storage. This service is also being provided to me for free.

本书编写于云。简而言之，我的办公软件不是安装在我的计算机上。这本书每一个章节都没有存储在任何一个我的磁盘或者移动盘上。相反，我使用的程序运行在Internet的某个地方。我的文件都存储在远程在线存储服务器上。而这个服务是完全免费的。

Exactly where my word processor is running and where my files are I really have no idea. More importantly, I simply don’t care. This is also the whole point. Cloud computing is ‘fluffy’ because the resources being used are irrelevant to the vase majority of users. This is why cloud computing is so scary and resisted in many corporate data centres. It is also why cloud computing is so liberating and powerful for the rest of us.

确切的说，我的办公软件和文件在哪里运行和存储我真不知道。重要的是，我一点也不用关心。这是关键的地方。云计算是“空泛的”，对大多数人来说它使用什么资源是不相干的。这也导致它在很多企业数据中心里面引起恐慌和抵触情绪（因为不知道使用了啥资源）。不过它也让剩下的我们获得解放和高效。

Just before you think that I have no idea what I am doing, I can reveal that this book is being written in Google Docs. As illustrated in screenshot 1.1, this is an online word processing, spreadsheet, drawing and presentations package now being used by tens of millions of people and an increasing number of companies. In the UK, the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph national newspapers are now partially written in Google Docs. This has been occurring since July 2008 when the Telegraph Media Group began a transition from local Microsoft software to the online Google Apps software suite.

就在你以为我不知道我在云上能干什么的时候，我已经在Google Docs上编写完这本书。正如截图1.1，Google Docs是一个拥有成千上万普通用户的在线文档处理、电子表格、绘图和PPT的工具包，它的公司用户数也一直在持续增长。在英国，包括每日电讯报和星期日电讯报这样的全国性报纸都在部分的使用Google Docs。而电讯传媒集团【默多克？】早在2008年就开始逐步的将在本地MS上的文件处理迁移到在线Google APPs上。

Jaguar Land Rover, Rentokil Initial and the District of Columbia government are just three of the far larger organizations that have also adopted Google Apps. Meanwhile universities from Arizona to Delhi, Washington to Notre Dame, and Dublin to Leeds, are in a stampede to sign up to Google Apps Education Edition. Strange and scary as it may initially seem, make no mistake that cloud computing is already entering the mainstream.

在已经完全采用Google Apps的商业组织中，捷豹路虎（豪车）、Rentokil Initial（一个商业服务集团）和哥伦比亚政府是其中最大的三个。从亚利桑那（美国西南部的州）到德里（印度城市），从华盛顿（美国）到圣母院（法国巴黎），从都柏林（爱尔兰首都）到利兹（英格兰北部城市）其间的所有学校都蜂拥而至，体验着Google Apps教育版带来的便捷。它看起来是那么不可思议，所有一切都表明云计算已经成为主流。

This book is your guide to the dawning age of cloud computing in which all manner of computing resources will be accessed over the Internet. It is therefore a book about a technological change as radical as the personal computer revolution. This is, however, not a technical tome. Rather,A Brief Guide to Cloud Computing is your route map to the future practices and philosophy of computing and how they will affect us all.

这本书将引导你进入云计算的新时代，所有常见的计算资源都将通过Internet进行访问。所以本书阐述的是关于个人电脑革命的根本性技术变革。当然，它不是一本技术类长篇巨著，相反，云计算概论只是关于云计算的未来实践与基本原理路线图，以及它将如何影响我们所有人。

ScreenShot 1.1: Word processing in Google Docs.

 

So What Exactly is the Cloud?

云到底是啥？

You may be wondering what any of this has to do with clouds! The answer is that, for many years, the Internet has been represented on network diagrams by a cloud symbol. When, around 2008, a variety of new services started to emerge that permitted computing resources to be accessed over the Internet, the label ‘cloud computing’ started to be used as an umbrella term. So does this mean that we ought to be talking about ‘Internet computing’? Well, perhaps. However, in the strictest sense, the ‘cloud’ is a label for online computing resources rather than the entire Internet. The term ‘cloud computing’ is also useful because it distinguishes the kinds of things we have been doing online for a couple of decades from a totally new age of online software and processing power.

你也许会好奇，到底是什么原因让我们不得不采用了“云”这个说法！答案是，若干年来，我们在网络拓扑图上描述Internet时都是用云这个符号来表示。到了2008年前后，一个多样化的新服务开始出现，它允许通过Internet来访问计算资源，“云计算”的说法开始在一些团体组织中出现。这是否意味着我们可以称之为“Internet计算”呢？呵呵，也许吧。不管怎么说，在一些正式的场合，“云”这个说法作为在线计算资源的称呼比“整个的Internet”好听多了。“云计算”这个条款也应运而生，它区分了几十年来我们在线做的各种事和一个完全在线软件和处理能力的新时代。

Figure 1.1 illustrates the key differences between traditional and cloud computing. As shown in the top half of the figure, at present local software is installed and data is stored on most personal computers. Most computer users in organizations also access enterprise applications, data storage and processing power from a corporate data centre. The Internet may additionally be used and often relied upon. However, until now, for most people Internet usage has been confined to accessing information from websites and exchanging e-mails and file attachments.

例图1举例说明了传统计算模式和云计算模式之间关键的不同。在图例的上部分我们可以看到，软件和数据都安装、存放在本地计算机。大多数公司内部用户在获取企业应用、数据存储和计算能力时都与数据中心进行交互，Internet只是作为一个额外的补充途径。不管怎样，直到现在，很多人仍然习惯于把Internet局限在信息交流、收发邮件及其附件上。

The lower half of figure 1.1 shows the brave new world of cloud computing. Here the corporate data centre has been decommissioned. Also, software applications and data are no longer installed and stored on a user’s computing device. Rather, enterprise applications, personal applications, data storage and remote processing power are all accessed from the cloud.

例图1的下部分呈现了一个华丽的云计算时代，我们可以看到公司的数据中心被强制退役。同时，软件和数据都不再安装和存储在用户本地设备上。相反，企业应用、个人应用、数据存储和远程计算都从云端访问。

The scenarios shown in figure 1.1 indicate the two most extreme positions, with a hybrid model somewhere in between being most likely in the medium-term. Even so, the implications of ceasing to install all applications and store all data on personal computers or in a data centre will be very significant. Not least, as explored in chapter seven, there will be major ramifications for traditional software companies such as Microsoft. As discussed in chapter eight, the implications for those who currently work in company IT departments will also be just as great.

例图1的场景中描述了两种极端的状况，大部分时候（发展中期）很多地方还是接近于使用混合模式。即便如此，停止将所有应用程序的安装和数据的存储放在本地电脑或数据中心将具有非常重要的意义。尤其是，如同在第七章我们将看到，对于传统的软件公司（如微软）来说会有重大的影响。如同第八章论述那样，所有这些对于公司IT部门的业务也会有比较大的影响。

 

In practical terms, the cloud is made up loads of giant data centres – also known as ‘server farms’ – run by Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Apple and a host of other traditional and emerging computing giants. While the sorts of online services that can be offered from the cloud are quite varied, they can largely be classified under the two broad headings of ‘online software’ and ‘online hardware’. Lots of information and examples to demonstrate what this means in practice are provided in chapters three and four respectively.

在实际应用中，云是由巨型数据中心构成 – 通常称为“服务器农场”—运行在如Google、Amazon、Microsoft、IBM、Apple和其他传统或新兴的计算巨头主机上。虽然云可以提供的各种在线服务是多种多样的，但是他们在很大程度上可以区分为“在线软件”和“在线硬件”。在第三章和第四章将分别提供大量的信息和例子来证明这在实践中意味着什么。