Evans & Chambers Technology

Cloud Computing 101

So, you’ve heard or read about cloud computing, but exactly what does this term mean? Here, we’ll explain the concept, and compare it to a process you may already be familiar with. We’ll also discuss some pros and cons to cloud computing.

“Cloud computing” refers to the way data, software, and applications are managed, organized, and accessed. It is a mechanism for the delivery of services. Cloud computing service providers provide space for customers, including individuals, businesses, and governments, to store information, software, and applications off-site. No standard definition exists, but The National Institute of Standards and Technology lists the characteristics of cloud computing as “on-demand self-service, broad network access (internet standards based), location independent resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.” As an illustration of the concept of cloud computing, think of how your home computer houses your software and data including important documents and family photos. When thinking about backing up your data, you might consider a virtual backup service such as Mozy or Carbonite. These services maintain your data on their servers, which you can access over the Internet, from any computer. The virtual backup service might represent the experience you have when accessing data on a cloud: your data is stored on another server, and you are able access and retrieve your data at any time through an Internet site. You may have already worked off a cloud before without realizing it. Google Docs, Facebook, and Skype, are examples of applications that are hosted using cloud technology. As the technology advances, it’s possible that cloud computing may even eliminate your need for a hard drive in the future.

Cloud computing may prove most valuable for companies and governments. Currently, companies purchase huge amounts of hard drive space and servers to store volumes of data. In addition, companies must have enough computing power to host public websites and private intranets. Because of the size of space needed to accommodate additional users or an increase in users at a particular time, companies must invest in additional space than that which is actually used at any one point in time. Organizations, including government agencies like GSA, NASA and Navy, are working to evaluate the cloud’s usefulness for decreasing costs by reducing the need for hardware, software, IT personnel, physical space, and maintenance. In cloud computing, a company can also take advantage of the processing power of the cloud for increases in website traffic or large calculations. In this way, additional resources can be purchased as needed, rather than in the traditional model where maximum space is purchased, but not necessarily consumed. As with any technology, there are possible drawbacks, and with cloud computing: it comes down to privacy and security. Once data storage and management is transferred to an outside party, the owner loses a certain amount of control over that data. In addition, the owner can no longer take full responsibility for the security of the data and may experience increased opportunities for a security breach. To state it simply, since the owner can access it’s data from any location, it’s possible that others can, too.

Now that you’ve got a solid understanding of what’s at stake, what do you think? How would you feel about cloud computing solutions if you were the company or government agency? Share your thoughts or questions in the comments section below.

What’s so Web 2.0 about this site?

The term Web 2.0 describes new trends in the design and development that started appearing across an increasing number of web successful web sites several years ago. Although some believe the term is simply a marketing buzzword wrapped around existing technologies, the reality is that Web 2.0 can solve some of the gigantic problems that our Government customers face. Tim O’Reilly, who originated the term in 2003, asserts in his article ‘What Is Web 2.0′ that Web 2.0 marks a turning point in the web just after the dot-com collapse. The companies that survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common. An analysis of those commonalities brings us to a better understanding of what Web 2.0 really means.

While I would not consider it strictly Web 2.0, lets analyze the Web 2.0 qualities of this web site:

1. Usage of contemporary graphic design techniques. Effects such as gradients, soft shadows, rounded corners, and simplified layouts. A clean interface removes the fluff and places more importance on the data within the site, which is important since the data in a true Web 2.0 site is constantly and unpredictably changing.
2. Big fonts in headers. This is a return to HTML’s origins when the size of the text indicated it’s relative importance on the page.
3. Use of Open Source software. The new web is all about sharing, and so is Open Source. We utilize PHP, MySQL, WordPress, and Eclipse in the development of this site.
4. A blog. Any true blog brings other associated Web 2.0 ideals including an RSS feed, usage of tagging (“folksonomy”), a tagcloud, widgets, and user comments.
5. CSS layouts instead of HTML table-based where possible. Saves on bandwidth, maintainability of the site, and cross-platform accessibility (laptop, iPhone, high-tech refridgerator).
6. XHTML and CSS passes validation. This improves likelyhood that the site will work across browser versions and platforms.  The (X) in XHTML stands for “extensible”. By using XHTML strict, you are ensuring your pages will display correctly in a broad variety of devices for years to come … a very important concept for large, portable and long-sustaining web projects.
7. Web accessibility. The entire site provides for screen readers for the vision impaired, high contrast for the color blind, and doesn’t require specific knowledge or abilities to utilize.

Other aspects of a Web 2.0 site that are not incorporated into this site (yet):

1. Use of Ajax. This is an integral part of anything Web 2.0. It allows for page updates without needed to refresh the screen, which makes for a user experience previously uknown on the web, see Meebo.com or Netflix for examples.
2. The Wiki. The ultimate manifestation of user generated content, the wiki enables collaboration, which is another hallmark of Web 2.o.
3. Web services. These allow for the newly popular mashups and REST/XML/JSON based APIs allowing interaction between sites and more ways for the user to take control.