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Commentary: Cloud computing-Offloading data and processing to the Web

2009; Wiley; Volume: 37; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/bmb.20253

1539-3429

Graham R. Parslow,

Big Data and Business Intelligence

Cloud computing is now among the most widely used terms in corporate computing circles, yet I found that colleagues were not at all familiar with this phrase. An elite group of Silicon Valley executives attended a Cloud Summit Executive Conference in October 2008 [1]. Christopher Keene speaking at that summit remarked on the giddy enthusiasm with which Silicon Valley had embraced cloud computing even though it is poorly defined. Critics can cite Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's opinion that cloud computing is industry marketing gibberish. Jimmy Pike, Dell's director of system architecture, acknowledges that the meaning of cloud computing has become obscure because just about every information technology company has described what they are doing as cloud computing. Jimmy Pike also commendably offers the most succinct among many definitions that cloud computing is the packaging of computing resources which delivers the end product via the Internet [2]. The term cloud computing originated with the convention of depicting the Web as a cloud in flow diagrams (Fig. 1). A simple application that makes the concept more concrete is YouTube, whereby many users load a video into a database, and it is shared amongst many by using a Web browser. Wikipedia, and its sister project Wikiversity [3], are other examples of cloud computing where the data are stored and processed at a remote site and reached through the Web. The wiki called Proteopedia, reviewed in Websites of Note here, shows how this applies to biochemistry. In education, the use of the term cloud computing is rare at this time. One of the few examples I found that was described as cloud computing was provided by Sam Johnston [4], a commercial programmer who moved a university room-booking system to the Web. The University of New South Wales had a room allocation system that was accessible only by a limited number of operators. This made planning and allocation difficult. The replacement system is reached by a Web browser and allows all users, on and off campus, to access information about room availability. This example of a cloud system seems more like common sense than a radical innovation. The more radical aspects of cloud computing are software leasing and providing super-computer capacity online. A diagram showing the convention of depicting the Web as a cloud. Reproduced from Wikipedia under the conditions of the Wikimedia Commons. IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are just some of the large corporations known to be looking at cloud models of new business to generate income. Part of the lexicon in these models is software as a service (SaaS) [2]. This is where the provider owns an application and rents it to the user for a period. This differs from current licensed software models because you would not buy the Microsoft Office suite, but be able to use it for a fee comparable to a mobile phone contract. This also highlights the great downside to the cloud model in that services can be interrupted, intercepted, or overlaid with advertising. The many companies bringing free utilities to the market (e.g. Feedreader reviewed in Websites of Note) can only have a viable business if advertising is incorporated into the delivery. Security is commonly mentioned in treatments of the subject, and clouds can be private or public. Private clouds are blocked from the public by a firewall. Another concept is that of a personal cloud (the suite of Web applications used by an individual) that may include university studies as part of the continuum. Cloud computing is the rationale for new and developing applications such as Google Docs, Google Apps, Zoho Office, Flickr, Blogger, and more [5]. In Australia, Macquarie University has adopted the education edition of Google Apps and given each student a Gmail account [5]. Cloud services are also touted as a capacity “spill-over” at times when additional storage and processing is needed. Offloading computing overheads to a third party could greatly reduce the overall cost of computing to universities. The facilitation of group work and collaboration at a distance is also seen as a benefit applicable to many learning situations [5]. Users will not need their own expensive storage and computing hardware, only a laptop or mobile wireless device such as an iPhone. Even from modest interfaces, an application can be used that calls on the power of a super computer. The largest information technology companies in the world want us to get on board their clouds so we had best think through the Orwellian potential enshrouded in those gathering clouds. Universities must choose to resist or embrace being corporatized, globalized, and homogenized by cloud computing.