Local open access broadband makes cloud computing work

Submitted by acohill on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 13:40

Here is an interesting article about a study of current "cloud" computing services, which "seem to come up short. This really should not be a surprise. Businesses that think cloud computing services are going to be a panacea for their IT problems are going to be very disappointed.

First, cloud computing is just the latest IT industry buzz phrase, and is the latest in what is now a forty year history of selling old wine in new bottles. In this case, we are talking about very old wine indeed. Cloud computing is just the mainframe. And the mainframe was redefined in the early eighties as the mini-computer. And the mini-computer was redefined in the early nineties as client-server computing. And client-server computing became Web applications. And Web applications became Web 2.0. And Web 2.0 became cloud computing.

But all of those buzz phrases were and still are architecturally quite similar. The user is connected at a distance to a central repository of data. However, as the distances between the user and the data have grown, network latency, or how long it takes data to travel across the network between user and repository, has become a big problem. The Internet offers virtually no control over latency, for a whole variety of reasons, including the fact that the Internet was never, in its original design, intended for real-time transaction-based processing (cloud computing).

The answer is robust local, high performance open access broadband networks, which allow two things to happen--you can move the cloud closer to the user, and you can control and limit latency. Distributed cloud computing improves performance and reduces or eliminates the single point of failure that is being designed into some cloud environments. Apple, for example, is building a giant data center in North Carolina. But what happens if that facility loses power in a major storm? Apple and other cloud competitors like Amazon and Google do create redundant data centers, but a few massive data centers can't solve the latency problem the way putting cloud servers on local open access networks can.

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Comments

Lee Harless (not verified)

Sun, 08/23/2009 - 17:32

OK, finally. Finally someone speaks to me in terms that I can understand, about what "Cloud Computing" actually is.

So, we're moving forward with the refining of the technology and we've met limitations over the years and are at the point of defining exactly what it is that we are up against for this to go to the next level. I firmly believe that with the new bright young minds out there in our colleges and universities that these problems will either be solved, or that new designs and manners of operation will surface that will allow for this technology to either move forward, as it always has, or the whole system will be re-written and revamped.

I'm not so sure how efficient it would be to revamp, given that it would be a huge leap of faith for the average consumer to begin buying equipment for this new revamped system, when in the beginning, it will basically be a crippled framwork of what is to come.. ..which will not be a very good selling point for new hardware/software, but if we can find ways to market these new items that will work with this new system then it could work smoothly.

Not so sure I got my idea across as well as it was coming to me in my head, and I don't have a lot of time to edit the above stement, but I do thank you for explaining cloud computing in a little more of an understandable manner. You've always been very good with this. I thank you for all that you've done for the local community and for what you've done to bring Blacksburg and Virginia Tech into the digital community.

From the time I first sampled the internet at the old library on Draper Rd. back in the early nineties, to now, where I take full college courses online, we've seen the "internet" go from "novelty item" for the common citizen, to something that is interwoven with our very existence, with it being something that many of us need in our lives, on a daily basis.

The internet has been VITAL to my education, over the years, and it continues to be of great service to my life. Thank you SO MUCH, SIR, for bringing this to our community and thank you for your continued eforts to educate the public on very important matters involving the internet, in all of it's various forms and applications.

Thank you!

-Lee Harless (Blacksburg Native)

ps. I'm a Blacksburg Native - Film Student - Fledgling Professional Screenwriter - Audio Production Geek - Photographer - Musician ...and anything, and everything else I wish to study, thanks to the invention of the "Information Super Highway" and its local champion, Andrew Cohill.Dr, you've done a marvelous job with this over the years. Lots of hard work and a serious level of commitment and dedication to our community and to the technology. Thank you again.

Reader (not verified)

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 03:42

The internet has been VITAL to my education, over the years, and it continues to be of great service to my life. Thank you SO MUCH, SIR, for bringing this to our community and thank you for your continued eforts to educate the public on very important matters involving the internet, in all of it's various forms and applications.william from cisco ccna school.