Cisco in the clouds

If you're immune to buzzwords you may have missed "cloud computing", described as the most recent successor to grid computing. In his blog, Reuven Cohen, founder and chief technologist at Enomaly, which is focused on the cloud computing space, writes: "own the network, own the cloud." So where is Cisco in the cloud computing stakes?

Cohen points to Cisco's Doug Gourlay's thoughts on CC which include the service provider community scaling their cloud-managed application/hosting/hypervisor offerings and beefing up their capacity to handle virtualization. 

Cohen has some thoughts of his own on Cisco and cloud computing:

1. Cloud VLAN - Adaptive virtual in cloud networking
2. Cloud Federation - Combine a router/switch with a distributed federated command and control bot for in data center cloud management
3. Wide Area Cloud - VPN services for globally disperse cloud partitioning, management, migration and security.
4. Network / WAN optimization - The network is the biggest limitation in most cloud environments, own the network, own the cloud.

It would seem inevitable that Cisco will jump into cloud computing, I think the question is when, not if.

 When will we hear Cisco's official cloud computing play?

More from Cisco Subnet: 

* SolarWinds releases Cisco NetFlow analyzer for free
* Inside Cisco's Efficiency Assurance Program
* Navigating a JUNOS Configuration
* Layer 2 Security
* Counterfeit Cisco swindler sentenced
* Microsoft/Cisco PAID Internships: Too good to be true?

Go to Cisco Subnet for more Cisco news, blogs, discussion forums, security alerts, book giveaways, and more.

Check out our latest Subnet: Google Subnet.