rapid elasticity [English]


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Syndetic Relationships

InterPARES Definition

n. ~  The quality (of a resource) of being quickly and flexibly provisioned and released, in some cases automatically, commensurate with demand, so that the resource appears to the consumer to be unlimited at any time.

General Notes

An essential characteristic of cloud computing.

Other Definitions

  • Gartner IT Glossary (†298 s.v. cloud service elasticity): The ability to increase or decrease the amount of system capacity (for example, CPU, storage, memory and input/output bandwidth) that is available for a given cloud service on demand, in an automated fashion. This gives their customers the perception of unlimited capacity. From the consumer and RTI perspectives, cloud service elasticity is an automated means to increase or decrease a specific service capacity in response to increasing or scheduled demand changes.

Citations

  • Furht and Escalante 2010 (†583 p.490): The services classified as deployed on the grid are data oriented. In this case the need for the elasticity provided by the cloud infrastructure is addressed to the computing intensive part of the application. The use of the cloud infrastructure is convenient because resources, i.e. virtual machines, have to be instanced only for the needed time. Using the cloud for data storing is technically possible, but some drawbacks can raise when a large amount of data are allocated permanently in the cloud without the need of storage elasticity... However, the application requirements for the storage result in a total cost of ownership which is less critical than the requirement for computing power, so that a self hosted storage turns out to be more effective than a cloud storage solution. (†1210)
  • Mell and Grance 2011 (†334 p.2): Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released, in some cases automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward commensurate with demand. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be appropriated in any quantity at any time. (†1012)