About Me

Hello all- thanks for taking the time to visit my amateur blog site. I am currently an active duty Soldier in the U.S. Army and pursuing my Masters Degree in Instructional, Design, Development, and Evaluation from the Syracuse University. For those that I have known from the beginning (1998-ish) to be exact, have known me as "always finding another way" to accomplish something. I think this educational opportunity will afford me the opportunity to give back to the organization that has given me so much- the U.S. Army.

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Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Introduction into Cloud Computing

Here is an original post that I published in September of 2019 when initially selecting my two topics or focus areas for my blog. The first was on Content Management Systems (CMS) and this page is dedicated to the second or Cloud Computing. Here is what I originally posted to reframe the direction I'm taking this blog....but don't fret- I'll still make the connection between CMS and cloud computing and the way ahead (in my opinion).

Cloud Computing 


According to dictionary. com, cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage and process data, rather than a local server or personal computer. (dictionary.com, 2019)
 
So why cloud computing? Why is this important to me and the above topic (CMS)? 
According to infoworld.com- cloud computing has two meanings an refers to workloads remotely over the internet or from a pool of resources to be shared by groups of people. 

 Furthermore; cloud computing can be categorized by SaaS (Software as a Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a service), and PaaS (Platform as a Service). 
According to  HCL Technologies, A global technology company that helps enterprises restructure their businesses for the digital age- cloud computing or architecture generally refers to the various components in terms of databases, software applications, engineered to leverage power to solve business problems. the term cloud architecture defines components and relationship between them (HCL Technologies Limited, 2019). 

Below is the differences in above categorization of cloud computing: 

Software as a Service (Saas)- software that is hosted and maintained on the internet. Users do not have to install software locally. Think Amazon Web Service, Google Cloud Platform, Adobe, and IBM Cloud. 
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)- this is what provides for infrastructure and hardware such as servers, networks, storage devices, running the cloud, and available to users in a pay per service basis. Think about the components that companies use to run the cloud- servers, storage space and then sale or rent to users for use. 

Platform as a Service (Paas)- this provides users with the application platforms and databases, equivalent to middleware services. Think- Amazon Web Services Elastic Beanstalk, Windows Azure, and Google App Engine to name a few. 

Now that we've dived in and laid out exactly what cloud computing is with architecture and the general components of a cloud...stay tuned in the next blog we will be talking about content management systems utilization of a cloud and why or why not. To include some examples of cloud computing with content management systems. 


~Nick A.



11 comments:

  1. Nick,
    This is a very interesting subject, but it can be kind of scary. I think ultimately this allows those who operate the cloud to pool information for themselves. Most of us have some kind of cloud storage, but computing is a different animal. I think potentially this would allow computers to work together and multiple their abilities to conduct advanced problem solving and other applications because the storage area is nearly limitless. Which frees up space on the computer for just processing functions. Anyway this is beyond my current level of understanding. Thanks
    Chuck

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  2. Hi Nick,
    Thanks for your sharing. I am a little afraid of this concept because I don't know much about this advanced technology. But in fact, I found that I have used cloud computing frequently in my life, such as Baidu Cloud Platform. It is useful to save my computer and mobile phones' storage area. Look forward to learning more information from your blog!
    Jialu

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    1. Jialu,

      Thanks for commenting on my blog- trust me I am not that technologically advanced guy. I do like technology and this subject specifically. Like you, most people use cloud technology, just don't know that's what it actually is.- like Amazon Web Services, Google cloud platform, onedrive, google drive, etc. I look forward to providing more information about this topic as we continue our educational journey.

      ~Nick A.

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  3. Nick,

    Great post this week, prior to meeting my wife I had no idea what cloud storage or cloud computing was. I would save my photos and other things like my papers for school on my computer then she introduced me to the cloud. It's great because I can save, store, share, and access my photos at any time from any location or device. This proved very useful when we were attending the Sergeants Major Course. I used to email my papers to my work email, but sometimes ran into the problem of accessing at school. With the cloud I could remotely access my materials anytime. It also cleaned out a ton of storage space I was using on my computer increasing its speed.

    Tony

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    1. Tony,

      Thanks for you reply- Cloud Computing was part of my B.S. degree-I did learn some things about it and found it interesting like you did. I use it pretty much for storage of files, media, and what not. I also found it very helpful during the SMC- while some peers lost all their work- all I had to do was download whatever file I wanted.
      ~Nick A.

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  4. Nick,
    Another great post. I can imagine that we all dabble a little in cloud computing without realizing it. I know that I have used Google drive more this year than previously due to our group projects and the need to share large files. I am unfamiliar with others, but thanks to your post, I can look up others by name and learn more about them. Thanks for sharing.
    --Lisa

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    1. Lisa,

      Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment- I know we have had these discussions in person especially using google drive and onedrive for storage of documents. The cool thing about one drive is that is automatically saves any documents you're working on as long as you have an account and work from there. Unfortunately google drive is similar to just a virtual hard drive for storage and sharing of documents. Thanks again for stopping by Lisa- stay tuned for my next post on the types of cloud computing besides we we think we already know.

      ~Nick

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  5. Nick,

    Great post! This looks interesting and the way you ended your post left me wanting some more knowledge about using a cloud. From what I understand, cloud computing and storage is just like all the google storage and sharing services they provide. Now that you have sparked my attention, time to do some research of my own.

    Erric

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    1. Eric- yes thanks again for stopping by- I am about to post some more information for your research. However, in the mean time- we usually think of cloud computing as just a site or service for storage and sharing of documents, images, and files. Similar to google drive, one drive, but the iCloud is also a type of cloud computing. Mostly, these types of services are using service as a platform. the other two types of cloud computing use infrastructure as a service or IaaS (think servers and any other hardware) and Platform as a Service or PaaS- think software that enables us to use the cloud like google's app engine. I am in the process of producing more information for this blog...so standby. Thanks for stopping by and providing feedback.

      ~Nick A.

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  6. Nick,
    I read your post, but I honestly do not think I am ready for Cloud computing.
    In my early years, prior to committing to service, I wanted to learn how to build and troubleshoot computers. I went to a (bootcamp) and learned all about a new craze that was going to be coming out and would be used throughout the internet. I learned the good and the bads. The newest craze was CLOUD computing. We had plenty of students that were interested in this new information, but the instructor told us to be very careful. He talked for about an hour about how the information would be sent to a CLOUD service some where in the US and stored on a server.
    He kept explaining how easy this information could be stolen, if the right person wanted to get to the data.

    This is why I am kind of hesitant to start storing the information on Cloud services. The other comment he made was also quite interesting.
    He went on to explain that, "Why would someone allow you to store information on THEIR servers"?

    This was the best part of the class, because he explained how algorithims go out and read the content on their servers, then return with a compilation of data that could be sold for marketing purposes.

    What do you think?

    Tony Ruiz

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    1. Tony,

      All great comments...unfortunately I am not a guru like that instructor at the boot camp. But I will say this- everytime you google something...do you ever wonder why google types in the rest in light font? That's called "predictive analysis and part of web 4.o. Web 1.0 was and is archaic and if you can imagine when you and I went to school those big bulky computers that were only read but offered little interactivity? Then fast foward to web 2.0 where we had interactivity and we could send emails and the like. Web 3.0 and 4.0 are based more on predictive analysis and can determine what you like, click on, interest, and build a whole profile on you. I think yes he was correct, but if you use amazon services (cloud computing- Amazon web services lol) you are already using the cloud. if you use google drive or one drive (microsoft) you are already using the Software as a Service or SaaS. Whatsapp, facebook, viber, instagram or all forms of SaaS and cloud computing.

      Additionally- there are firewalls and security protection for all cloud computing and I agree why would someone want to allow you to store information on their servers- simple- to make money- the key is reading all about their services like privacy protection, third party sharing, private services, etc. Hope that helps.

      ~Nick A.

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