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Last week, Sun Microsystems announced their Cloud Computing plans. I spent some time thinking about their offerings and its impact on Cloud Computing. If we remove the chatter around the rumored IBM’s acquisition of Sun and proceed with the assumption that Sun remains an independent entity, I get some good vibes about this announcement. Let me try to channel my thoughts in a coherent way in this post.

As Cloud Computing gets more popular and as more and more enterprises move towards clouds, doubts are being raised about the scalability and reliability of single provider clouds. In spite of the “low costs” involved in building datacenters, a single provider may not be able to offer infinite scalability. Add to it, the reliability issue associated with putting all eggs in one basket. We are now faced with a dilemma of whether Cloud Computing can stand up to the demands of the future. The solution to this problem lies in the idea of Open Federated Clouds. (more…)