An overview of Cloud Computing and Cloud Ready Application Development

As “cloud computing” becomes widespread, IT personnel must have a solid understanding of how to best leverage this technology in order to make wise decisions for their organizations. The goal of this exposition is to provide a common understanding of cloud computing by providing an analysis of on several of the technology. The first area of focus will be providing a definition of “cloud computing”, which will be comprised of a description, principles and examples. Next, the research will discuss what makes an application “cloud ready”, describing the types of changes that IT personnel should apply to their legacy software in order to take advantage of cloud computing. Finally, to help IT personnel understand the myriad of aspects of cloud computing, a cloud provider assessment framework will be proposed as a tool analyzing public cloud providers. The research will conclude with a comparison of four of the top cloud providers, using the assessment framework.