In my last post, I tried to explain how the infrastructure layer determines so much of the cloud computing IT stack. Really, what it boils down to is the flexibility your computing needs demand.

The services and applications that cloud consumers value are characterized by their flexibility and dynamism. The underlying infrastructure needs to be agile enough to accommodate the stresses of an “on demand” consumption model. This goes way beyond the kinds of automated operations that most IT shops are familiar with and starts to take on the attributes of what UNISYS calls an “exo-operating system.”

I love that term. It conjures up images of powered armor from “The Forever War” or the power loader from “Aliens.” But that is exactly what some of the current generation of datacenter automation tool sets can deliver, if properly configured. Read more