This blog entry was initially posted at the Service Catalog Community and Blog website. Rodrigo Flores, Founder and CTO of newScale, Inc., was kind enough to let me post a guest blog there. Check out that site for great information on service catalogs (of course!), self-service, and much more.

The role of self-service in cloud computing has become increasingly clear over the last year or two. It didn’t hurt, for instance, that the Draft Working Definition of Cloud Computing from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) specified “on-demand self-service” as one of the essential characteristics of cloud computing. Yet, more importantly, members of IT organizations that have taken the time to consider the benefits of cloud computing seem to have internalized the idea that cloud services provide greater control and agility.

Overview

While many questions remain about this evolving space, there is growing evidence about what cloud infrastructure services (aka cloud-based infrastructure as a service or IaaS) and its cousins, shared and dedicated hosting, will become. Simply put, the idea of cloud infrastructure services as something separate and distinct from these other hosted services will fade, and customers will gain more flexibility and agility across all their hosting services.

Some Roots of Innovation

It is still early days in the cloud computing industry, yet new startup businesses supplying cloud enabling technologies are popping up like mushrooms after a rain. While they will not all succeed, they all believe they have an opportunity to grow and profit in this space. At the same time, traditional hosting service providers are extending their offerings beyond shared, dedicated and virtual private servers. They see the opportunities which cloud-based infrastructure as a service (IaaS) promise: rapid growth, high margins, access to new customers, and more. Of course the service providers have more than new opportunities on their minds. For them it is about survival.

Nearly a year ago I wrote a blog post called The Cloud Computing Industry Segments. It made an initial pass at describing the cloud computing industry segments. As mentioned in that post, this is a somewhat tricky proposition since cloud computing products, services and technologies are all evolving so quickly. It is now time for an update.

Neovise started by using three “super-segments”

1. Cloud Services – including IaaS, PaaS, SaaS

Understanding the Cloud Enabling Platform

Some readers may know that the Neovise website provides a number of resources for finding, understanding and selecting cloud computing services as well as cloud enabling technologies. Within the pages of the above resources link there is a page called IaaS Enabling Platforms.