Cloud Computing
An overview of some cloud computing elements that may address the challenge for hospital librarians in determining if this new way of computing has implications for hospital library services is provided.
Abstract
In the virtual services era the term “cloud computing” has worked its way into the lexicon. The challenge for hospital librarians lies in determining if this new way of computing has implications for hospital library services. This article provides an overview of some cloud computing elements that may address that challenge. What, exactly, is cloud computing? The answer to this question is as varied as those you ask. Mell and Grance with the Information Technology Laboratory of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) offer the following definition: “Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction” (1). The Office of the Vice President for Information Technology at Indiana University defines cloud computing as something that occurs off-site, “. . . cloud computing services are run outside the walls of the customer organization, on a vendor’s infrastructure with vendor maintenance” (2). When an institution or company says they are operating “in the cloud,” it means they have a portion of their computing service and storage needs being handled by a trusted third party. Instead of a firm’s information technology (IT) department buying new servers to address increased software and storage issues, they turn to another company that specializes in providing these services for a fee. This way, the firm is not saddled with the additional expenses associated with more hardware or software (i.e., electricity, cooling, space allocation, updates and upgrades, etc.).