A brand new approach to software development, delivery, and consumption
Over the recent 10 years, we have already become accustomed to clouds, created our public, cloud, and hybrid clouds, and upgraded them several times. Isn't it time for a new technological revolution? How will the infrastructure of the future look like? HPE forecasts that in the years ahead, new technologies will enable free relocation of workloads and data between all types of clouds. They named this paradigm "cloudless computing".
Replacing serverless architecture
Applications are at the core of information technology: they carry the payload, and the entire IT environment and infrastructure exists to support them. Every application developer keeps in mind the image of the environment where the developed application will operate. They plan how it will scale, interact with the outer world, update, etc.
Some years ago, applications ran on physical hardware, then it was replaced by virtual machines, then containers... and now global cloud providers evangelize serverless computing. Cloudless computing may well become the next step in this journey.
This is the name of a new approach to how software is developed, delivered, and consumed. Why do businesses need cloudless computing? What are the cons of a modern cloud (serverless) application lifecycle? Yes, a developer does not need to worry about a runtime environment—the cloud will take care of everything. However, once a company has deployed data and applications in a specific public or private cloud, moving it to another cloud may become a real challenge.
Cloudless computing does not make clouds disappear. It erases the borders between all types of clouds—both private and public ones—ensuring transparent access of developers and users to tools, services, and data that support the work of corporate applications. Dave Husak, HPE Fellow & General Manager, Cloudless Initiative, says that cloudless computing will ensure equal "terms" of working with private and public clouds.
Benefits for everyone
For application developers, cloudless computing will ensure seamless consumption and integration of infrastructure, tools, and services. For users, cloudless computing will create an abundance of choice and ensure flexibility and minimum cost of applications, software, and data access.
Open-source software, hardware, service, and data providers will benefit from a level playing field and fair access in the online marketplace.
"Cloudless Computing eliminates the distinction between public-ness and private-ness, allowing application workloads and data access the freedom to roam, to run where needed, when needed. People will receive super-flexible access to data and work wherever and whenever necessary," — says Husak.
Developers think in terms of interconnected meshes and dynamic structures. So modern application architectures resemble webs. Cloudless Computing provides the foundation, based on which developers can realize their designs in a seamless and open way.
Constituent elements of a cloudless ecology
There are three pillars of cloudless computing: security, connectivity, and openness.
Security should automate the observance of confidentiality requirements and provide real information protection. No data shall remain unencrypted, and no device shall remain vulnerable. No network element shall be able to harm another network element. Only those who we implicitly trust shall be allowed to access our cloudless infrastructure.
Connectivity of infrastructure fragments in a cloudless environment will relieve employees of worries about network policies and management limitations when moving their workloads through the fragments. Cloudless computing makes it possible to build user-defined network topologies aimed at optimizing the application performance, and application developers will no longer need to worry about network limitations.
Cloudless computing will become a new economic basis for the community of open-source developers. It will become a platform that stimulates innovations in services, tools, and methodologies. Private data centers, distributed retail chains, service operators, and all other businesses will be able to leverage the benefits of the cloudless platform
