Today Dell launched an exciting new service: Dell Remote Access. One might ask: “Is this a cloud service?” On its own, no, it’s not. Is it cloudy? Absolutely, because for the digital nomads out there, DRA represents an opportunity to BYOC: Build Your Own Cloud… 🙂
This might sound a bit far-fetched, but stay with me. Most definitions of cloud computing include the notion of compute and storage resources accessed remotely by users over the network. Typically this refers to massive, centralized power like that found in search platforms or compute services; tens or hundreds of thousands of servers and Petabytes of disk bound together to power the platform. Another concept in cloud computing is the notion of multi-tenancy of the platform; resources shared amongst users. BYOC employs these concepts on a human scale: a private cloud of your own, where light edge devices used anywhere can leverage the power of heavier centralized resources at the home.
For example: in my home (where I hold both “CTO” and “Support Queue Tech, Level 1” titles), we have several laptops and also share file storage on a NAS device hooked up to a wireless router. With Dell Remote Access I can tap into the processing and storage power of these devices remotely – from my phone, a browser at an internet café, or a laptop at the airport. I can run my applications with the horsepower and security I have built into my home environment. I can access gigs and gigs of our photos and music… all via the network… from “the edge.” (The edge being wherever I happen to be, with whatever device I happen to have at hand) Further, by sharing access to the folders on the various systems and the NAS drive amongst my users (aka, family), one might say there is multi-tenancy at play here as well.
Now I realize this is a bit tongue-in-cheek in the context of an enterprise computing blog. There is no demand-driven dynamic allocation of processing or storage as might be found in a true cloud. I do not have raised floor in my home office (although that would be cool), and I’m not charging my daughters by the core/hr or byte of data transferred (maybe I should). But I think much of the analogy really applies.
So the next time someone tells you to get off their cloud – go build your own….