Nucleus-Inc aims to mimic the characteristic of the actual nucleus of an atom, by becoming a starting point for studying and further exploring the field of System Integration.
Looking for practical implications of using the services of Cloud computing, I came across this article that describes how a UK based construction firm encountered huge cost savings ( nearly $2 million in licensing and support costs) when they switched from using Microsoft outlook to Gmail and started using a wide range of other applications hosted on Google Apps. One of the interesting points that was mentioned regarding the security of company data in using gmail, was that gmail, being a distributed model, would prevent a single point of attack. More information at : http://www.cio.com/article/429863/Cost_Savings_Found_When_Microsoft_Outlook_Ousted_for_Gmail_at_British_Construction_Firm_
Earlier this year AMD gave a demo of their "Fusion Render Cloud". An AMD Supercomputer will deliver Next-Generation Games and Applications entirely through the Cloud.The supercomputer itself will have more than 1000 Graphic processors and is designed to break the one petaFLOPS barrier !!
The “AMD Fusion Render Cloud” is designed to run HD content over the Internet (or cloud) through your web browser. You can watch HD movies and run games, all through your web browser.
You no longer would need to have high end graphic processors and storage drives on your computers to play graphically intensive games and watch HD content, you would be able to do this by simply using a thin client with a browser.
Since the presentation last week, I have been weighing my thoughts on the questions that were raised. Some questions had a common underlying theme " How different is cloud computing from Internet?" One can make a point that Internet is a collection of information and Web services. From that view point, if Internet and Cloud Computing are the two intersecting circles in a classical Venn Diagram, Web Services is the area that is common to both. (Paas and Iaas can be considered parts of the cloud clomputing circle that does not intersect with Internet.)
Our Presentation topic on Tuesday (15th Sept '09) is API or Application Programing Interface.
These are the areas we will be focusing on: --> Introduction to API's. --> API's from the context of Cloud Computing.
If you want to read ahead go on and check out the following articles/links, 1. http://eprints.kfupm.edu.sa/19126/1/19126.pdf (Information on API and related MIddleware architectures) 2. http://www.bluemountainlabs.com (Explore this website for more on SOA and its relation to Cloud Computing) 3. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/43487/Application_Programming_Interface?taxonomyId=63&pageNumber=1 (More on API's)
A good website for latest information and discussion on Cloud Computing topics is the Cloud Computing Journal at: http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/
Technology put to relevant use, often has the effect of making one feel “Why didn’t someone think of this before?” With internet around, this feeling is only being felt too often.
Why is this opening statement relevant to cloud computing? You ask….
Let me give you an example. There have been a number of times when I have saved a word document on my home computer, forgotten to email it to myself or take it in a pen drive and then have had to rethink of an alternative to get the information I need… When Google docs came by, I was awed by this simple (I don’t mean a least bit in implementation) and seemingly obvious solution.
BTW if you use Google docs and other related applications, you’re already hooked onto the cloud, you’re probably just not aware…. i.e., till now… :)
Google docs is a fine example of cloud computing. It allows for a user to use an application stored on a remote server without having to install it on his/her PC and one can access from any medium that’s connected to the internet.
Some of the terms you often get to hear along with cloud computing are:
SaaS (Software as a service): Typical example is Google docs...
HaaS (Hardware as a service): An example that has been mentioned a number of times (I wasn’t aware of it until I started researching on Cloud computing) is Amazon’s Elastic compute cloud or EC2. It allows a user to work on a virtual machine with a scalable computing power. As a user you get to choose what combination of memory, CPU usage etc you need for your choice of OS on the virtual machine. For more information see: http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/#pricing
Stay tuned to this space for more information on Cloud Computing and its relation to our focus: System Integration.
The buzzword nowadays seems to be 'CLOUD COMPUTING' !! But what is it ?? The following video gives a brief overview by the experts as to what cloud computing is!!
