Cloud computing is a topic that seems to be on every IT person’s lips these days, and that trend will very likely continue in the future. That said, many IT professionals are still asking themselves: What exactly is cloud computing? How can it benefit my unique environment? And how do I need to plan for it?

There are several key components that make up a cloud-enabled infrastructure. Virtualization is really the foundation; a virtualized server and storage environment is the first building block on the PVC (Physical to Virtual to Cloud) journey. You should be able to take advantage of resource-pooling with rapid elasticity. Power Systems is an ideal platform choice for cloud, and many Power Systems clients have already embraced this functionality by leveraging the advanced virtualization capabilities of IBM PowerVM and Capacity on Demand technologies. Fundamentally, a cloud infrastructure should also be based on standardization, automation and self-service. You will also need broad network access, a management console for monitoring, and some way to measure/meter for billing or chargeback.