DotNetNuke in the Cloud – Part 1, Introduction

The “Cloud” or “Cloud Computing” has become rather a buzzword for the future of of computing.  But what is it, and where does DotNetNuke fit in this “Brave New World”. 

This article is the first in a series of blogs I will be writing as I dive into this exciting area and I will be speaking on this topic at the upcoming Open Force conferences in Europe and in Las Vegas. 

What is Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is defined in Wikipaedia as:

Cloud computing is an example of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet.

The concept generally includes combinations of the following services:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

  delivery of computer infrastructure (usually using virtualization).  Rather than purchasing servers, software and data centre space, client instead purchase these resources as a service, based on how much computing power is used, much like other utility services such as cable or telephone service.  Examples of Infracstructre as a Service include Amazon EC2 and Rackspace Cloud

• Platform as a Service (PaaS)

  delivery of a computing platform or API, which facilitates the deployment of applications, without the complexity of purcahsing the hardware needed.  Examples of Platform as a Service include Windows Azure and Google App Engine.

• Software as a Service (SaaS)

  delivery of a software package, whereby a provider licenses an application for use as service on demand.  An Example of Software as a Service is Salesforce.com.

As you can see there is a common thread in these three major pillars of Cloud Computing -Cloud computing customers do not generally own the physical infrastructure serving as host to the software platform in question.  Cloud computing customers consume resources as a service and pay only for those resources that they consume. 

In theory, by sharing the “physical” hardware resources with many other users (multiple tenants) means that cloud services are typically cheaper than building and operating the infrastructure yourself.  This is certainly true with regard to up-front capital costs and less true for operating costs, but the economic model provides clients with the flexibility to scale as necessary.

Examples of Cloud Computing

Basically you can divide the types of Cloud services into 5 categories.

Infrastructure

• Amazon Elastic Cloud Computing (EC2)
• Rackspace Cloud Servers

Storage

• Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)
• Rackspace Cloud Files

Platform

• Windows Azure
• Google AppEngine
• Rackspace Cloud Sites

Applications

• Salesforce.com
• Twitter
• BitTorrent
• Skype
• Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing eg. SETI @ Home

Services

• Identitiy – oAuth, OpenID, LiveID
• Mapping – Google Maps, Live Maps
• Payments – Paypal, Google Checkout
• Search
• Videos – YouTube

In the next part of this series I will start by exploring Infrastructure services by looking at using Amazon EC2 to host a DotNetNuke application.