I have read a few articles regarding cloud computing lately. In the technology industry in Georgia, it seems that this became one of the buzz words in 2009.

While I understand the basic logistics of cloud computing, I saw something recently referencing "Internal Cloud Computing" So, here's the basis of this discussion... what is "Internal Cloud Computing"?

I'm also curious to hear from any companies that are currently using cloud computing technology.

What do you think the viability is in Georgia for this technology?

Internal Cloud Computing can be used to virtualize server farms to handle functions that have variable demand. The concept is solid, but has some things to watch...

1) What's the function? What services have variable usage profiles? Look across your infrastructure to find things like batch processing jobs that need large resources for short durations. Good examples are logfile processors, indexers, cache builders and report generators. It is best used if you can balance functions that operate at different times of the day/week.

2) What's the real cost? Virtualization can be a huge cost saver or budget buster. Make sure that it's not something that can use a cheap server with cheap operating costs.

3) Factor in extra time for configuration and automation.

What else?

The keyword that Randy used was variable. An internal or private cloud generally indicates that your infrastructure can automatically scale or re-purpose systems as utilization changes.

The most discussed technology that I have heard of to do this, but not used, is Eucalyptus.
www.eucalyptus.com/