This is the third post in the series I described in The Purpose-Driven Cloud. the series is an attempt to categorize the various cloud platforms available today (and that may be available in the future). Each installment examines one of the dimensions that differentiates various cloud platforms. Previous posts discussed the Usability-Driven Cloud and Framework-Based Clouds. This post is about: -
Domain-Specific Clouds
Unlike general purpose clouds, such as IaaS clouds (for example, Amazon Web Services) and PaaS clouds (e.g., Google App Engine), domain-specific clouds are cloud platforms intended for developing apps (or components of apps) with a particular kind of functionality.
The example that epitomizes this concept is Twilio -- a cloud platform focused entirely on telephony and voice applications, as I described in detail in What's Really Exciting About Cloud Computing.
Other examples include testing clouds (SOASTA, SkyTap) and ITStructures' PoC, Demo and Training Cloud.
The rumor is that OpsCode is working on an IT automation domain-specific cloud using Chef, the domain-specific programming language the company is promoting.
Other domain-specific clouds are sure to follow, as well as industry-specific clouds, which will be the topic of the next post in this series.
