Compuware has launched a dedicated service for cloud computing users. The company has tapped into the growing interest in cloud technology by launching a community that will, among other things, assess response times from various cloud providers.
Cloudsleuth is currently in beta but will be launched as a complete service later this summer. “We’re going to be adding features between now and the official launch,” said Richard Stone, Compuware’s solutions manager for cloud computing. For example, we’re going to add scalablity benchmarks – we’re going to see how infinite “infinite” really is.
Stone said that one of the key aspects of the site was to demonstrate that the Internet was not some sort of flat terrain, with the same level of accessibility for everyone.”The Internet is not flat, and you don’t get the same sort of experience everywhere you go.
He said that one of the crucial aspects of cloud computing was that data could come from a variety of different sources, something that could cause problems for businesses “If I’m an enterprise, a big question How do I manage my service and appls is some of them cross organisation and geographical boundaries. If you take the home page for CNN, or example,” he said, “there’s information on there from 22 different providers.”
Stone added that the service provider report would enable users to check how cloud companies were performing at a given time in their area. “It’s not quite real-time, it takes a couple of minutes to re-load,” he said, “but it’s near enough. But it also provides location-based reports from where you actually are.”
At the moment, the site contains information on the six leading cloud hosting companies in the US, but Stone said that this would be expanded to include local providers.
One area that Cloudsleuth is not going to look at is security. “It’s a number one concern for cloud customers at the moment,” said Stone, “but it’s something that will be sorted out in time.”
There’s already some competition in this area: Rackspace introduced a website for cloud computing users last year after having released a portal for cloud computing tools. Stone said that what Compuware was offering was an independent voice. “There’s always going to be some questions about a site if the figures that come from an individual hosting provider.”
The site will be free said Stone, adding that Compuware will not be collecting any identifiable personal information. “We want to encourage people to sign up – the whole purpose of the community is that the community builds it.”
