Cloud computing is an upcoming field in distributed systems. Unlike grid computing the most prominent drivers in this field come from industry. The most prominent examples of cloud computing vendors include Amazon, Google and salesforce.com. Their offerings had been developed to solve inhouse problems, such as how to simplify systems management in extremely large environments. Now, they offer their technology as a platform to the public.

While web companies have embraced the new platforms very fast the question remains whether they represent suitable platforms for enterprise HPC. In this chapter we assess the impact of cloud computing technology on enterprises. We present PHASTGrid, an integration platform that allows enterprises to move their workload seamlessly between different internal and external resources. In addition we present our solution for software license management in virtualized environments.

Based on our experience we conclude that cloud computing with its on-demand, pay-as-you-go offerings can help enterprises to solve computationally intense problems. The current nature of the offerings limits the range of problems that can be executed in the cloud, but different offerings will be available in the future. ISVs need to adjust their software licensing model in order to be able to offer their software in these environments.