Monthly Archives: April 2009

Cloud computing: changing the way we work

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Quoting an article in the ACM TechNews, Monday, April 20, 2009, bulletin:

«Cloud computing has the potential to create irreversible changes in how computers are used around the world, says David Carrera, director of the Cloud Computing (CC) research team at Spain’s Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC). Carrera says cloud computing technology’s objective is to move any applications stored on a computer to a remote location, eliminating all the standard components, including operating systems and hard drives, which are necessary in today’s computers and make them accessible online through a standard browser. Traditional computers will become obsolete, and instead of traveling with laptops, users will be able to rent a computer and access all of the information and programs online. Carrera says the ultimate goal of cloud computing is to mix and manage applications in an intelligent manner. For example, cloud computing could be used to create software that monitors the response of a machine or appliance in real time and controls its power supply, optimizing energy use and saving money, Carrera says. The CC team is researching systems for coordinating the thousands of terminals and nodes that compose the cloud, a major concern of technology companies. “By applying artificial intelligence to the cloud, we are hoping to develop a system through which computers can manage themselves,” says UPC professor Ricard Gavalda»…

ORACLE + SUN: Is the Cloud growing or losing one important player?

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I think, even if Larry Ellison isn’t admitting it, that ORACLE would have to move to the Cloud paradigm as all other players are already doing it. Buying SUN will be the perfect excuse to admit that they should have done it earlier. Obviously this is not the bases of the business with SUN,  but with it, ORACLE will have access to a lot of great tools, starting on Identity Management Platforms, passing through the virtualization technologies, and ending on the Cloud specific APIs. We shouldn’t forget, as others are also defending on the Cloud Computing Google Group, that Java could also be used as the perfect PaaS tool.

With this acquisition Oracle will have access to all this power and Cloud friendly solutions. They will also have access to the knowledge that has transformed the SUN microsystems in one of the Cloud Computing’s most important players.

I’m looking forward to see how this will produce more and inovative technologies and solutions, or if it will be as another HP+Compaq business.

Mobile widgets

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A Vodafone R&D Group (Betavine) launched a Widget Competition. The interesting think about this competition is that is launched by a global telecommunication operator and not by a mobile phone manufacture insuring a larger reach for the technology they are using (at this time it works in several Nokia phones and also in a Samsung model). Also a developer just needs to know client side languages like Javascript to build widgets.

See here how to create a widget (from thinkvitamin).

Amazon Elastic MapReduce – The power of the Grid and the elasticity of the Cloud

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Amazon has recently introduced its Elastic MapReduce service. With it users will have the power of the Grid Computing together with the elasticity of the Cloud Computing paradigm. Having access to computing power able to perform data-intensive tasks like financial analysis, scientific simulation, etc , will no longer be dependent of a pre-tagged price. You only need to pay when you are using the service. This seems to be a very interesting service, and as Sam Johnston says, a very interesting development in the “Cloud as an operating environment”.