Cloud computing is a hot topic in the technology world these days. While it's difficult to predict the future, a cloud computing infrastructure project developed at Argonne National Lab, called Nimbus, is demonstrating that cloud computing's potential is being realized now.

Credit: © 2009 Jupiter Images Corporation

Cloud computing is a hot topic in the technology world these days. While its difficult to predict the future, a cloud computing infrastructure project developed at Argonne National Lab called Nimbus is demonstrating that cloud computings potential is being realized now. In this interview with Kate Keahey, the leader of the Nimbus project, Keahey talks about the differences between cloud computing and grid computing and about Nimbus. Keahey and her team developed this open source cloud computing infrastructure to allow scientists working on data-intensive research projects to be able to use such virtual machines with a cloud provider. Nimbus also allows users to create multiple virtual machines to complete specific computational jobs that can be deployed throughout the cloud and still work in tandem with each other. This flexibility allows a user to configure a virtual machine and then connect it to resources on a cloud, regardless of who is providing the cloud.

Credit: National Science Foundation and Argonne National Laboratory