Recently I attended the very cool TechMixer University event in Birmingham, where I had the privilege of sharing my thoughts on the ever-growing field of Cloud Computing (platforms, opportunities, etc). Afterwards, a couple of attendees came up to me and started asking questions about specific problems they had, and which type of Cloud Computing platform might be best for their problem.  Later, I realized that the answers I gave them were part of a larger set of thoughts on the “technical realities” of Cloud Computing.

Everyone knows what Cloud Computing is. No one knows what Cloud Computing is. How can this be? Because Cloud Computing, like many buzz words, has been adopted by so many different organizations, people and disciplines, that it has no specific meaning anymore. Instead, you have a bewildering array of different players all jumping on the Cloud Computing bandwagon, hoping to spread the message about their technology, their product, their approach to the world.

This white paper is an attempt to create some structure around Cloud Computing - to explain the different types of technologies that are all currently living under the “Cloud Computing” umbrella, and to describe the types of problems that these technologies are good at solving. After reading this, hopefully you’ll have a better understanding of which lobe (or lobes) of Cloud Computing might be appropriate to help you solve your problem(s).