There are a number of large business now using the Amazon backend services to provide powerful computing power for their web services.
Cloud Computing, Shared Computing and other type processes are nothing new to computer technology. In the very early stages most companies that needed access to large and powerful processors would use a remote terminal to log into a server. The tasks at that time were relatively simplistic compared to today’s standards.
In the past 15 years we have seen computer network backends go from mainframes to individual servers then clustered servers then blade servers and now cloud computing. There was also a progression of single core single processor computers to multi processor motherboards now multi core and multi processor computers and finally cloud computing that supposedly strings all of this together in one large mass.
The idea is similar to the borg where computing resources are assimilated and the collective (cloud) works as a master server. heh well its something like that.
Is Amazon Alone?
Cloud computing is now making its way into standard hosting companies and under utilized equipment is now being put to good use. But does this mean that along with overselling we will now see a handful of clients stealing available processes from standard accounts? Will your website be knocked offline or perform at a lower level because large clients need your servers brain power? This is probably likely.
If you want to findout more about EC2 products visit Amazon’s Webservices Site
For more information about cloud computing for standard customers visit RackSpace
