Gartner Highlights Five Attributes of Cloud Computing

Gartner’s Cloud Computing Special Report Examines the Realities and Risks of Cloud

STAMFORD, Conn., As cloud computing begins to move beyond the pure hype stage and into the beginning of mainstream adoption, Gartner, Inc. has identified the five attributes of cloud computing. By using these attributes, it is possible to see how strongly a cloud solution (or service) adheres to the cloud computing model.

Gartner defines cloud computing as a style of computing in which scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service to external customers using Internet technologies. This is a slight revision of Gartner’s original definition published in 2008. Gartner has removed “massively scalable” and replaced it with “scalable and elastic” as an indicator that the important characteristic of scale is the ability to scale up and down, not just to massive size.

“When approaching cloud computing, providers of cloud services and potential consumers of cloud services must examine the attributes of cloud computing to determine whether their services will deliver the expected outcomes,” said Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and chief Gartner Fellow. “If a service is not scalable and elastic, then it may not be shareable enough. If it is not metered by use, then it may not allow for flexible pricing. Support for more of the attributes opens the door to a great value proposition to the consumer, and greater flexibility and potential cost reduction for the provider.”

“We recognize that services may adhere to some attributes more effectively than others,” said David Mitchell Smith, vice president and Gartner Fellow. “The degree to which the service exhibits all these characteristics indicates how much it adheres to the cloud computing model. One must examine a combination of these attributes to evaluate cloud services. Focusing on one attribute in isolation is not recommended.”

The five attributes of cloud computing are:

Service-Based: Consumer concerns are abstracted from provider concerns through service interfaces that are well-defined. The interfaces hide the implementation details and enable a completely automated response by the provider of the service to the consumer of the service. The service could be considered “ready to use” or “off the shelf” because the service is designed to serve the specific needs of a set of consumers, and the technologies are tailored to that need rather than the service being tailored to how the technology works. The articulation of the service feature is based on service levels and IT outcomes (availability, response time, performance versus price, and clear and predefined operational processes), rather than technology and its capabilities. In other words, what the service needs to do is more important than how the technologies are used to implement the solution.

Scalable and Elastic: The service can scale capacity up or down as the consumer demands at the speed of full automation (which may be seconds for some services and hours for others). Elasticity is a trait of shared pools of resources. Scalability is a feature of the underlying infrastructure and software platforms. Elasticity is associated with not only scale but also an economic model that enables scaling in both directions in an automated fashion. This means that services scale on demand to add or remove resources as needed.

Shared: Services share a pool of resources to build economies of scale. IT resources are used with maximum efficiency. The underlying infrastructure, software or platforms are shared among the consumers of the service (usually unknown to the consumers). This enables unused resources to serve multiple needs for multiple consumers, all working at the same time.

Metered by Use: Services are tracked with usage metrics to enable multiple payment models. The service provider has a usage accounting model for measuring the use of the services, which could then be used to create different pricing plans and models. These may include pay-as-you go plans, subscriptions, fixed plans and even free plans. The implied payment plans will be based on usage, not on the cost of the equipment. These plans are based on the amount of the service used by the consumers, which may be in terms of hours, data transfers or other use-based attributes delivered.

Uses Internet Technologies: The service is delivered using Internet identifiers, formats and protocols, such as URLs, HTTP, IP and representational state transfer Web-oriented architecture. Many examples of Web technology exist as the foundation for Internet-based services. Google’s Gmail, Amazon.com’s book buying, eBay’s auctions and Lolcats’ picture sharing all exhibit the use of Internet and Web technologies and protocols.

Additional information is in the Gartner report “Five Refining Attributes of Public and Private Cloud Computing”. The report is available on Gartner’s Web site at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=167182&ref=g_fromdoc.

This document is included in the Gartner Special Report “The What, Why, and When of Cloud Computing” The Special Report contains 29 pieces of research compiled by more than 20 analysts. In this research, Gartner begins to establish what people should do about cloud computing and how it might help, or hurt, them. As such, this research on cloud computing continues to be multidisciplinary and wide-ranging. By its very nature, the subject is broad, exposing risks and opportunities throughout both the IT and the business worlds. The special report is available on Gartner’s Web site at http://www.gartner.com/it/products/research/cloud_computing/2009/cloud-computing09.jsp?prm=6_8_09_CCC.

Mr. Smith will provide additional analysis at the Gartner SOA & Application Development and Integration Summit, June 24-25 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London. The Summit provides the complete view of SOA, application development, application integration and emerging trends. Additional information is available at http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=754413. Members of the media can register by contacting Holly Stevens at holly.stevens@gartner.com.

About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the indispensable partner to 60,000 clients in 10,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,000 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants in 80 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.