| What is a cloud? The term cloud comes from the old WAN diagrams that show the service provider's network as a puffy cloud that all the access lines run into. The point of the metaphor is that you plug into an entity whose inner workings are obscure, but you believe it will do what you want it to do. (The leap of faith for a transport service provider was scary enough, but with cloud computing, it's even scarier. Your data isn't just passing through, it lives there.) Cloud computing explained in easy to understand terms Oddly enough, I've been spending a lot of time explaining what cloud computing is. So considering that there are some really good explanations out there... I decided to share two of my favorite. Can you trust your data to Amazon, other storage cloud providers? The Amazon S3 and Nirvanix cloud storage services promise easy data storage for Web companies, but perils can't be overlooked. The siloed vendor offerings In past newsletters we commented on the fact that IT organizations are typically organized around silos of technology. We recently received some e-mail from our readers who acknowledged the fact that IT organizations are siloed, but also drew our attention to the impact of the silos that surround vendor offerings. We will use the next few newsletters to talk about those siloed vendor products and services and to begin a discussion of cloud computing. A framework for a WAN architecture The last couple of newsletters looked at some of the risks associated with architecture. In this newsletter we will discuss the fact that in spite of those risks we believe that this is a very important time for IT organizations to develop a WAN architecture. To put that last comment in context, we believe that the need for an architecture increases when there is a lot of change in the environment and we are currently seeing a lot of change underway in the WAN environment. What belongs in a WAN architecture? In the last newsletter, we began the discussion of what topics need to be included in a WAN architecture. We discussed the fact that Cisco's Application eXtension Platform (AXP) allows IT organization to embed applications into their Integrated Services Router. This is an option that has not been available previously and IT organizations need to make a decision as to whether or not they want to make use of this new capability. Network World on Twitter Get our tweets and stay plugged in to networking news. | 
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