Cloud Computing White Paper Essay Example

Cloud Computing White Paper Essay Cloud computing is a â€Å"newsworthy† term in the IT industry in recent times and it is here to stay! Cloud computing is not a technology, or even a set of technologies – it’s an idea. Cloud computing is not a standard defined by any standards organization. Basic understanding for Cloud: â€Å"Cloud† represents the Internet; Instead of using applications installed on your computer or saving data to your hard drive, you’re working and storing stuff on the Web.Data is kept on servers and used by the service you’re using; tasks are performed in your browser using an interface/ console provided by the service. A credit card and internet access is all you need to make an investment in technology. Business will find it easier than ever to provision technology services without the involvement of IT. There are many definitions available in the market for Cloud Computing but we have aligned it with NIST publication and with our understanding.NIST def ines cloud computing by describing five essential characteristics, three cloud service models, and fur cloud deployment models. Cloud Computing is a self service which is on demand, Elastic, Measured, Multi-tenant, Pay per use, Cost-effective and efficient. It is the access of data, software applications, and ad computer processing power through a cloud or a group of many on line/demand resources. Tasks are assigned to a combination of connections, software and services accessed over a network. This network of servers and connections is collectively known as â€Å"the cloud. Cloud service delivery is divided among three fundamental classifications referred as the â€Å"SPI Model. † Cloud computing  is the delivery of computing and storage capacity  Ã‚  as a service  to a community of end-recipients. The name comes from the use of a cloud-shaped symbol  as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts services w ith a users data, software and computation over a network. There are three types of cloud computing: * Infrastructure as a Service  (IaaS), * Platform as a Service  (PaaS), and Software asd a Service  (SaaS). The business model,  IT as a service  (ITaaS), is used by in-house, enterprise IT organizations that offer any or all of the above services. Using software as a service, users also rent application software and databases. The  cloud providers  manage the infrastructure and platforms on which the applications run. End users access cloud-based  applications  through a  web browser  or a light-weight desktop or  mobile app  while the business software  and users data are stored on servers at a remote location.Proponents claim that cloud computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable busine ss demand. Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and  economies of scale  similar to a  utility  (like the  electricity grid) over a network. At the foundation of cloud computing is the broader concept of  converged infrastructure and  shared services.The origin of the term  cloud computing  is obscure, but it appears to derive from the practice of using drawings of stylized clouds to denote networks in diagrams of computing and communications systems. The word  cloud  is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the standardized use of a cloud-like shape to denote a network on telephony schematics and later to depict the Internet in  computer network diagrams  as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents. The cloud symbol was used to represent the Internet as early as 1994.In the 1990s,  telecommunications companies  who previously offered primarily dedicated point-to-point data circuits, began offe ring  virtual private network  (VPN) services with comparable quality of service but at a much lower cost. By switching traffic to balance utilization as they saw fit, they were able to utilize their overall network bandwidth more effectively. The cloud symbol was used to denote the demarcation point between that which was the responsibility of the provider and that which was the responsibility of the users. Cloud computing extends this boundary to cover servers as well as the network infrastructure.The underlying concept of cloud computing  dates  back to the 1950s; when large-scale  mainframe  became available in  academia  and corporations, accessible via  thin clients  /  terminal  computers. Because it was costly to buy a mainframe, it became important to find ways to get the greatest return on the investment in them, allowing multiple users to share both the physical access to the computer from multiple terminals as well as to share the  CPU  time, eliminating periods of inactivity, which became known in the industry as  time-sharing.As computers became more prevalent, scientists and technologists explored ways to make large-scale computing power available to more users through time sharing, experimenting with algorithms to provide the optimal use of the infrastructure, platform and applications with prioritized access to the CPU and efficiency for the end users. John McCarthy  opined in the 1960s that computation may someday be organized as a  public utility. Almost all the modern-day characteristics of cloud computing (elastic provision, provided as a utility, online, illusion of infinite supply), the comparison to the electricity industry and the use of public, private, government, and community forms, were thoroughly explored in  Douglas Parkhill’s 1966 book,  The Challenge of the Computer Utility. Other scholars have shown that cloud computings roots go all the way back to the 1950s when scientist  Herb Grosch  (the author of Groschs law) postulated that the entire world would operate on dumb terminals powered by about 15 large data centers.Due to the expense of these powerful computers, many corporations and other entities could avail themselves of computing capability through time sharing and several organizations, such as GEs GEISCO, IBM subsidiary The Service Bureau Corporation, Tymshare (founded in 1966), National CSS (founded in 1967 and bought by Dun ;amp; Bradstreet in 1979), Dial Data (bought by Tymshare in 1968), and  Bolt, Beranek and Newman  marketed time sharing as a commercial venture.The ubiquitous availability of high capacity networks, low cost computers and storage devices as well as the widespread adoption of  hardware virtualization,  service-oriented architecture, autonomic, and utility computing have led to a tremendous growth in cloud computing. After the  dot-com bubble,  Amazon  played a key role in the development of cloud computing by mod ernizing their  data centers, which, like most  computer networks, were using as little as 10% of their capacity at any one time, ust to leave room for occasional spikes. Having found that the new cloud architecture resulted in significant internal efficiency improvements whereby small, fast-moving two-pizza teams could add new features faster and more easily, Amazon initiated a new product development effort to provide cloud computing to external customers, and launched Amazon Web Service (AWS)  on a utility computing basis in 2006. [14][15] In early 2008,  Eucalyptus  became the first open-source, AWS API-compatible platform for deploying private clouds.In early 2008,  OpenNebula, enhanced in the RESERVOIR European Commission-funded project, became the first open-source software for deploying private and hybrid clouds, and for the federation of clouds. In the same year, efforts were focused on providing quality of service  guarantees (as required by real-time interac tive applications) to cloud-based infrastructures, in the framework of the IRMOS European Commission-funded project, resulting to a real-time cloud environment.By mid-2008, Gartner saw an opportunity for cloud computing to shape the relationship among consumers of IT services, those who use IT services and those who sell them  and observed that organizations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use service-based models so that the projected shift to computing will result in dramatic growth in IT products in some areas and significant reductions in other areas. On March 1, 2011, IBM announced the  Smarter Computing  framework to support Smarter Planet.Among the various components of the Smarter Computing foundation, cloud computing is a critical piece. In 2012, Dr. Biju John and Dr. Souheil Khaddaj describe the cloud as a  virtualized,  semantic source of information: Cloud computing is a universal collection of data which extends over the i nternet in the form of resources (such as information hardware, various platforms, services etc. ) and forms individual units within the virtualization environment. Held together by infrastructure providers, service providers and the consumer, then it is semantically accessed by various users.Cloud computing shares characteristics with: * Autonomic computing  Ã¢â‚¬â€ Computer systems capable of  self-management. * Client–server model  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  Client–server computing  refers broadly to any  distributed application that distinguishes between service providers (servers) and service requesters (clients). * Grid computing  Ã¢â‚¬â€ A form of  distributed  and  parallel computing, whereby a super and virtual computer is composed of a  cluster  of networked,  loosely coupled  computers acting in concert to perform very large tasks. * Mainframe computer  Ã¢â‚¬â€ Powerful computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications, t ypically bulk data processing such as  census, industry and consumer statistics, police and secret intelligence services,  enterprise resource planning, and financial  transaction processing. * Utility computing  Ã¢â‚¬â€ The packaging of  computing resources, such as computation and storage, as a metered service similar to a traditional public utility, such as electricity. * Peer-to-peer  Ã¢â‚¬â€ Distributed architecture without the need for central coordination, with participants being at the same time both suppliers and consumers of resources (in contrast to the traditional client–server model). * Cloud gaming   Also called On-demand gaming is a way of delivering to games to computers. The gaming data will be stored in the providers server, so that gaming will be independent of client computers used to play the game. The attributes of Cloud Networking are: Scalable:  Cloud Networks scale to thousands of nodes and provide a non-blocking fabric across the en tire cloud. * Low Latency: Latency is key to improving application performance. The network needs to provide ultra-low latency in a large-scale environment. * Guaranteed Delivery: The cloud must provide predictable and reliable performance to a large number services, including HPC applications, web, video and data. * Extensible Management: Cloud Networks cross all traditional boundaries between servers, enterprise networks, and service provider networks.They need to be managed in a  hybrid  environment, often with customizations that are unique to that individual deployment. The management of the network needs to be extensible and customizable to allow such applications. * Self-Healing Resiliency: With larger scale, networks become much more critical and faults need to be contained and healed automatically. Arista Networks offers a unique Cloud Networking Platform that meet the above requirements. Please see our Products amp; Services sections for more information.In early 2008,   Eucalyptus  became the first open-source, AWS API-compatible platform for deploying private clouds. In early 2008,  Open Nebula, enhanced in the RESERVOIR European Commission-funded project, became the first open-source software for deploying private and hybrid clouds, and for the federation of clouds. [19]  In the same year, efforts were focused on providing quality of service  guarantees (as required by real-time interactive applications) to cloud-based infrastructures, in the framework of the IRMOS European Commission-funded project, resulting to a real-time cloud environment.By mid-2008, Gartner saw an opportunity for cloud computing to shape the relationship among consumers of IT services, those who use IT services and those who sell them  and observed that organizations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use service-based models so that the projected shift to computing will result in dramatic growth in IT products in some areas a nd significant reductions in other areas. On March 1, 2011, IBM announced the  Smarter Computing framework to support Smarter Planet.Among the various components of the Smarter Computing foundation, cloud computing is a critical piece. In 2012, Dr. Biju John and Dr. Souheil Khaddaj incorporated the semantic term into the cloud Cloud computing is a universal collection of data which extends over the internet in the form of resources (such as information hardware, various platforms, services etc. ) and forms individual units within the virtualization environment. Held together by infrastructure providers, service providers and the consumer, then it is semantically accessed by various users. (CLUSE 2012), Bangalore, April 2012 Cloud computing is all the rage. Its become the phrase du jour, says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring, echoing many of his peers. The problem is that (as with Web 2. 0) everyone seems to have a different definition. As a metaphor for the Internet, the cloud i s a familiar cliche, but when combined with computing, the meaning gets bigger and fuzzier. Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility computing: basically  virtual servers  available over the Internet. Others go very broad, arguing anything you consume outside the firewall is in the cloud, including conventional  outsourcing.Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure,  training  new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends ITs existing capabilities. Cloud computing is at an early stage, with a motley crew of providers large and small delivering a slew of cloud-based services, from full-blown applications to storage services to spam filtering.Yes, utility-style infrastructure p roviders are part of the mix, but so are  SaaS (software as a service)  providers such as Salesforce. com. Today, for the most part, IT must plug into cloud-based services individually, but cloud computing aggregators and integrators are already emerging. InfoWorld talked to dozens of vendors, analysts, and IT customers to tease out the various components of cloud computing. Based on those discussions, heres a rough breakdown of what cloud computing is all about: 1. SaaSThis type of cloud computing delivers a single application through the browser to thousands of customers using a multitenant architecture. On the customer side, it means no upfront investment in servers or software licensing; on the provider side, with just one app to maintain, costs are low compared to conventional hosting. Salesforce. com is by far the best-known example among enterprise applications, but SaaS is also common for HR apps and has even worked its way up the food chain to  ERP, with players such as Workday. And who could have predicted the sudden rise of SaaS  desktop applications, such as Google Apps and Zoho Office? . Utility computing The idea is not new, but this form of cloud computing is getting new life from Amazon. com, Sun, IBM, and others who now offer storage and virtual servers that IT can access on demand. Early enterprise adopters mainly use utility computing for supplemental, non-mission-critical needs, but one day, they may replace parts of the datacenter. Other providers offer solutions that help IT create virtual datacenters from commodity servers, such as 3Teras AppLogic and Cohesive Flexible Technologies Elastic Server on Demand.Liquid Computings LiquidQ offers similar capabilities, enabling IT to stitch together memory, I/O, storage, and computational capacity as a virtualized  resource pool available over the network. 3. Web services in the cloud Closely related to SaaS, Web service providers offer APIs that enable developers to exploit functionali ty over the Internet, rather than delivering full-blown applications. They range from providers offering discrete business services such as Strike Iron and Xignite to the full range of APIs offered by Google Maps, ADP payroll processing, the U.S. Postal Service, Bloomberg, and even conventional credit  card processing  services. 4. Platform as a service Another SaaS variation, this form of cloud computing delivers development environments as a service. You build your own applications that run on the providers infrastructure and are delivered to your users via the Internet from the providers servers. Like Legos, these services are constrained by the vendors design and capabilities, so you dont get complete freedom, but you do get predictability and pre-integration.Prime examples include Salesforce. coms  Force. com,Coghead  and the new  Google App Engine. For extremely lightweight development, cloud-basedmashup platforms  abound, such as  Yahoo Pipes  or Dapper. net . 5. MSP (managed service providers) One of the oldest forms of cloud computing, a managed service is basically an application exposed to IT rather than to end-users, such as a virus scanning service for e-mail or an application monitoring service (which Mercury, among others, provides).Managed security services delivered by SecureWorks, IBM, and Verizon fall into this category, as do such cloud-based anti-spam services as Postini, recently acquired by Google. Other offerings include desktop management services, such as those offered by CenterBeam or Everdream. 6. Service commerce platforms A  hybrid  of SaaS and MSP, this cloud computing service offers a service hub that users interact with. Theyre most common in trading environments, such as expense management systems that allow users to order travel or secretarial services from a common platform that then coordinates the ervice delivery and pricing within the specifications set by the user. Think of it as an automated service bureau. Well-known examples include Rearden Commerce and Ariba. 7. Internet integration The integration of cloud-based services is in its early days. OpSource, which mainly concerns itself with serving SaaS providers, recently introduced the OpSource Services Bus, which employs in-the-cloud integration technology from a little startup called Boomi.SaaS provider Workday recently acquired another player in this space, CapeClear, an ESB (enterprise service bus) provider that was edging toward b-to-b integration. Way ahead of its time, Grand Central which wanted to be a universal bus in the cloud to connect SaaS providers and provide integrated solutions to customers flamed out in 2005. Today, with such cloud-based interconnection seldom in evidence, cloud computing might be more accurately described as sky computing, with many isolated clouds of services which IT customers must plug into individually.On the other hand, as virtualization and SOA permeate the enterprise, the idea of l oosely coupled services running on an agile, scalable infrastructure should eventually make every enterprise a node in the cloud. Its a long-running trend with a far-out horizon. But among big metatrends, cloud computing is the hardest one to argue with in the long term. http://www. aristanetworks. com/en/solutions http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Cloud_computing http://www. infoworld. com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031? page=0,1 Cloud Computing White Paper Essay Example Cloud Computing White Paper Essay Cloud computing is a â€Å"newsworthy† term in the IT industry in recent times and it is here to stay! Cloud computing is not a technology, or even a set of technologies – it’s an idea. Cloud computing is not a standard defined by any standards organization. Basic understanding for Cloud: â€Å"Cloud† represents the Internet; Instead of using applications installed on your computer or saving data to your hard drive, you’re working and storing stuff on the Web.Data is kept on servers and used by the service you’re using; tasks are performed in your browser using an interface/ console provided by the service. A credit card and internet access is all you need to make an investment in technology. Business will find it easier than ever to provision technology services without the involvement of IT. There are many definitions available in the market for Cloud Computing but we have aligned it with NIST publication and with our understanding.NIST def ines cloud computing by describing five essential characteristics, three cloud service models, and fur cloud deployment models. Cloud Computing is a self service which is on demand, Elastic, Measured, Multi-tenant, Pay per use, Cost-effective and efficient. It is the access of data, software applications, and ad computer processing power through a cloud or a group of many on line/demand resources. Tasks are assigned to a combination of connections, software and services accessed over a network. This network of servers and connections is collectively known as â€Å"the cloud. Cloud service delivery is divided among three fundamental classifications referred as the â€Å"SPI Model. † Cloud computing  is the delivery of computing and storage capacity  Ã‚  as a service  to a community of end-recipients. The name comes from the use of a cloud-shaped symbol  as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts services w ith a users data, software and computation over a network. There are three types of cloud computing: * Infrastructure as a Service  (IaaS), * Platform as a Service  (PaaS), and Software asd a Service  (SaaS). The business model,  IT as a service  (ITaaS), is used by in-house, enterprise IT organizations that offer any or all of the above services. Using software as a service, users also rent application software and databases. The  cloud providers  manage the infrastructure and platforms on which the applications run. End users access cloud-based  applications  through a  web browser  or a light-weight desktop or  mobile app  while the business software  and users data are stored on servers at a remote location.Proponents claim that cloud computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable busine ss demand. Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and  economies of scale  similar to a  utility  (like the  electricity grid) over a network. At the foundation of cloud computing is the broader concept of  converged infrastructure and  shared services.The origin of the term  cloud computing  is obscure, but it appears to derive from the practice of using drawings of stylized clouds to denote networks in diagrams of computing and communications systems. The word  cloud  is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the standardized use of a cloud-like shape to denote a network on telephony schematics and later to depict the Internet in  computer network diagrams  as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents. The cloud symbol was used to represent the Internet as early as 1994.In the 1990s,  telecommunications companies  who previously offered primarily dedicated point-to-point data circuits, began offe ring  virtual private network  (VPN) services with comparable quality of service but at a much lower cost. By switching traffic to balance utilization as they saw fit, they were able to utilize their overall network bandwidth more effectively. The cloud symbol was used to denote the demarcation point between that which was the responsibility of the provider and that which was the responsibility of the users. Cloud computing extends this boundary to cover servers as well as the network infrastructure.The underlying concept of cloud computing  dates  back to the 1950s; when large-scale  mainframe  became available in  academia  and corporations, accessible via  thin clients  /  terminal  computers. Because it was costly to buy a mainframe, it became important to find ways to get the greatest return on the investment in them, allowing multiple users to share both the physical access to the computer from multiple terminals as well as to share the  CPU  time, eliminating periods of inactivity, which became known in the industry as  time-sharing.As computers became more prevalent, scientists and technologists explored ways to make large-scale computing power available to more users through time sharing, experimenting with algorithms to provide the optimal use of the infrastructure, platform and applications with prioritized access to the CPU and efficiency for the end users. John McCarthy  opined in the 1960s that computation may someday be organized as a  public utility. Almost all the modern-day characteristics of cloud computing (elastic provision, provided as a utility, online, illusion of infinite supply), the comparison to the electricity industry and the use of public, private, government, and community forms, were thoroughly explored in  Douglas Parkhill’s 1966 book,  The Challenge of the Computer Utility. Other scholars have shown that cloud computings roots go all the way back to the 1950s when scientist  Herb Grosch  (the author of Groschs law) postulated that the entire world would operate on dumb terminals powered by about 15 large data centers.Due to the expense of these powerful computers, many corporations and other entities could avail themselves of computing capability through time sharing and several organizations, such as GEs GEISCO, IBM subsidiary The Service Bureau Corporation, Tymshare (founded in 1966), National CSS (founded in 1967 and bought by Dun ;amp; Bradstreet in 1979), Dial Data (bought by Tymshare in 1968), and  Bolt, Beranek and Newman  marketed time sharing as a commercial venture.The ubiquitous availability of high capacity networks, low cost computers and storage devices as well as the widespread adoption of  hardware virtualization,  service-oriented architecture, autonomic, and utility computing have led to a tremendous growth in cloud computing. After the  dot-com bubble,  Amazon  played a key role in the development of cloud computing by mod ernizing their  data centers, which, like most  computer networks, were using as little as 10% of their capacity at any one time, ust to leave room for occasional spikes. Having found that the new cloud architecture resulted in significant internal efficiency improvements whereby small, fast-moving two-pizza teams could add new features faster and more easily, Amazon initiated a new product development effort to provide cloud computing to external customers, and launched Amazon Web Service (AWS)  on a utility computing basis in 2006. [14][15] In early 2008,  Eucalyptus  became the first open-source, AWS API-compatible platform for deploying private clouds.In early 2008,  OpenNebula, enhanced in the RESERVOIR European Commission-funded project, became the first open-source software for deploying private and hybrid clouds, and for the federation of clouds. In the same year, efforts were focused on providing quality of service  guarantees (as required by real-time interac tive applications) to cloud-based infrastructures, in the framework of the IRMOS European Commission-funded project, resulting to a real-time cloud environment.By mid-2008, Gartner saw an opportunity for cloud computing to shape the relationship among consumers of IT services, those who use IT services and those who sell them  and observed that organizations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use service-based models so that the projected shift to computing will result in dramatic growth in IT products in some areas and significant reductions in other areas. On March 1, 2011, IBM announced the  Smarter Computing  framework to support Smarter Planet.Among the various components of the Smarter Computing foundation, cloud computing is a critical piece. In 2012, Dr. Biju John and Dr. Souheil Khaddaj describe the cloud as a  virtualized,  semantic source of information: Cloud computing is a universal collection of data which extends over the i nternet in the form of resources (such as information hardware, various platforms, services etc. ) and forms individual units within the virtualization environment. Held together by infrastructure providers, service providers and the consumer, then it is semantically accessed by various users.Cloud computing shares characteristics with: * Autonomic computing  Ã¢â‚¬â€ Computer systems capable of  self-management. * Client–server model  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  Client–server computing  refers broadly to any  distributed application that distinguishes between service providers (servers) and service requesters (clients). * Grid computing  Ã¢â‚¬â€ A form of  distributed  and  parallel computing, whereby a super and virtual computer is composed of a  cluster  of networked,  loosely coupled  computers acting in concert to perform very large tasks. * Mainframe computer  Ã¢â‚¬â€ Powerful computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications, t ypically bulk data processing such as  census, industry and consumer statistics, police and secret intelligence services,  enterprise resource planning, and financial  transaction processing. * Utility computing  Ã¢â‚¬â€ The packaging of  computing resources, such as computation and storage, as a metered service similar to a traditional public utility, such as electricity. * Peer-to-peer  Ã¢â‚¬â€ Distributed architecture without the need for central coordination, with participants being at the same time both suppliers and consumers of resources (in contrast to the traditional client–server model). * Cloud gaming   Also called On-demand gaming is a way of delivering to games to computers. The gaming data will be stored in the providers server, so that gaming will be independent of client computers used to play the game. The attributes of Cloud Networking are: Scalable:  Cloud Networks scale to thousands of nodes and provide a non-blocking fabric across the en tire cloud. * Low Latency: Latency is key to improving application performance. The network needs to provide ultra-low latency in a large-scale environment. * Guaranteed Delivery: The cloud must provide predictable and reliable performance to a large number services, including HPC applications, web, video and data. * Extensible Management: Cloud Networks cross all traditional boundaries between servers, enterprise networks, and service provider networks.They need to be managed in a  hybrid  environment, often with customizations that are unique to that individual deployment. The management of the network needs to be extensible and customizable to allow such applications. * Self-Healing Resiliency: With larger scale, networks become much more critical and faults need to be contained and healed automatically. Arista Networks offers a unique Cloud Networking Platform that meet the above requirements. Please see our Products amp; Services sections for more information.In early 2008,   Eucalyptus  became the first open-source, AWS API-compatible platform for deploying private clouds. In early 2008,  Open Nebula, enhanced in the RESERVOIR European Commission-funded project, became the first open-source software for deploying private and hybrid clouds, and for the federation of clouds. [19]  In the same year, efforts were focused on providing quality of service  guarantees (as required by real-time interactive applications) to cloud-based infrastructures, in the framework of the IRMOS European Commission-funded project, resulting to a real-time cloud environment.By mid-2008, Gartner saw an opportunity for cloud computing to shape the relationship among consumers of IT services, those who use IT services and those who sell them  and observed that organizations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use service-based models so that the projected shift to computing will result in dramatic growth in IT products in some areas a nd significant reductions in other areas. On March 1, 2011, IBM announced the  Smarter Computing framework to support Smarter Planet.Among the various components of the Smarter Computing foundation, cloud computing is a critical piece. In 2012, Dr. Biju John and Dr. Souheil Khaddaj incorporated the semantic term into the cloud Cloud computing is a universal collection of data which extends over the internet in the form of resources (such as information hardware, various platforms, services etc. ) and forms individual units within the virtualization environment. Held together by infrastructure providers, service providers and the consumer, then it is semantically accessed by various users. (CLUSE 2012), Bangalore, April 2012 Cloud computing is all the rage. Its become the phrase du jour, says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring, echoing many of his peers. The problem is that (as with Web 2. 0) everyone seems to have a different definition. As a metaphor for the Internet, the cloud i s a familiar cliche, but when combined with computing, the meaning gets bigger and fuzzier. Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility computing: basically  virtual servers  available over the Internet. Others go very broad, arguing anything you consume outside the firewall is in the cloud, including conventional  outsourcing.Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure,  training  new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends ITs existing capabilities. Cloud computing is at an early stage, with a motley crew of providers large and small delivering a slew of cloud-based services, from full-blown applications to storage services to spam filtering.Yes, utility-style infrastructure p roviders are part of the mix, but so are  SaaS (software as a service)  providers such as Salesforce. com. Today, for the most part, IT must plug into cloud-based services individually, but cloud computing aggregators and integrators are already emerging. InfoWorld talked to dozens of vendors, analysts, and IT customers to tease out the various components of cloud computing. Based on those discussions, heres a rough breakdown of what cloud computing is all about: 1. SaaSThis type of cloud computing delivers a single application through the browser to thousands of customers using a multitenant architecture. On the customer side, it means no upfront investment in servers or software licensing; on the provider side, with just one app to maintain, costs are low compared to conventional hosting. Salesforce. com is by far the best-known example among enterprise applications, but SaaS is also common for HR apps and has even worked its way up the food chain to  ERP, with players such as Workday. And who could have predicted the sudden rise of SaaS  desktop applications, such as Google Apps and Zoho Office? . Utility computing The idea is not new, but this form of cloud computing is getting new life from Amazon. com, Sun, IBM, and others who now offer storage and virtual servers that IT can access on demand. Early enterprise adopters mainly use utility computing for supplemental, non-mission-critical needs, but one day, they may replace parts of the datacenter. Other providers offer solutions that help IT create virtual datacenters from commodity servers, such as 3Teras AppLogic and Cohesive Flexible Technologies Elastic Server on Demand.Liquid Computings LiquidQ offers similar capabilities, enabling IT to stitch together memory, I/O, storage, and computational capacity as a virtualized  resource pool available over the network. 3. Web services in the cloud Closely related to SaaS, Web service providers offer APIs that enable developers to exploit functionali ty over the Internet, rather than delivering full-blown applications. They range from providers offering discrete business services such as Strike Iron and Xignite to the full range of APIs offered by Google Maps, ADP payroll processing, the U.S. Postal Service, Bloomberg, and even conventional credit  card processing  services. 4. Platform as a service Another SaaS variation, this form of cloud computing delivers development environments as a service. You build your own applications that run on the providers infrastructure and are delivered to your users via the Internet from the providers servers. Like Legos, these services are constrained by the vendors design and capabilities, so you dont get complete freedom, but you do get predictability and pre-integration.Prime examples include Salesforce. coms  Force. com,Coghead  and the new  Google App Engine. For extremely lightweight development, cloud-basedmashup platforms  abound, such as  Yahoo Pipes  or Dapper. net . 5. MSP (managed service providers) One of the oldest forms of cloud computing, a managed service is basically an application exposed to IT rather than to end-users, such as a virus scanning service for e-mail or an application monitoring service (which Mercury, among others, provides).Managed security services delivered by SecureWorks, IBM, and Verizon fall into this category, as do such cloud-based anti-spam services as Postini, recently acquired by Google. Other offerings include desktop management services, such as those offered by CenterBeam or Everdream. 6. Service commerce platforms A  hybrid  of SaaS and MSP, this cloud computing service offers a service hub that users interact with. Theyre most common in trading environments, such as expense management systems that allow users to order travel or secretarial services from a common platform that then coordinates the ervice delivery and pricing within the specifications set by the user. Think of it as an automated service bureau. Well-known examples include Rearden Commerce and Ariba. 7. Internet integration The integration of cloud-based services is in its early days. OpSource, which mainly concerns itself with serving SaaS providers, recently introduced the OpSource Services Bus, which employs in-the-cloud integration technology from a little startup called Boomi.SaaS provider Workday recently acquired another player in this space, CapeClear, an ESB (enterprise service bus) provider that was edging toward b-to-b integration. Way ahead of its time, Grand Central which wanted to be a universal bus in the cloud to connect SaaS providers and provide integrated solutions to customers flamed out in 2005. Today, with such cloud-based interconnection seldom in evidence, cloud computing might be more accurately described as sky computing, with many isolated clouds of services which IT customers must plug into individually.On the other hand, as virtualization and SOA permeate the enterprise, the idea of l oosely coupled services running on an agile, scalable infrastructure should eventually make every enterprise a node in the cloud. Its a long-running trend with a far-out horizon. But among big metatrends, cloud computing is the hardest one to argue with in the long term. http://www. aristanetworks. com/en/solutions http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Cloud_computing http://www. infoworld. com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031? page=0,1

Typical Course of Study - 7th Grade

Typical Course of Study - 7th Grade By the time they are in 7th grade, most students should be reasonably self-motivated, independent learners. They should have a good time-management framework in place, though they will likely still need guidance, and parents should remain actively involved as a source of accountability. Seventh-graders will move onto more complex reading, writing, and math skills and a more in-depth study of previously-learned concepts alongside the introduction of new skills and topics.   Language Arts A typical course of study for 7th-grade language arts includes literature, composition, grammar, and vocabulary building. In 7th-grade, students are expected to analyze text and infer its message, citing the text to support their analysis. They will compare different versions of a document, such as a book and its film  version  or a historical  fiction book with a historical account of the same event or time period. When comparing a book to its movie version, students will learn to notice how elements such as lighting, scenery, or musical score affect the message of the text. When reading text that supports an opinion, students should be able to state whether the author supported his claim with solid evidence and reasons. They should also compare and contrast the texts of other authors presenting the same or similar assertions. Writing should include more in-depth research papers that cite multiple sources. Students are expected to understand how to quote and cite sources and build a bibliography. They are also expected to write well-researched and fact-supported arguments in a clear and logical format. Seventh-grade students should also demonstrate clear, grammatically-correct writing across all subjects, such as science and history. Grammar topics should ensure that students know how to correctly punctuate quoted text and use apostrophes, colons, and semicolons. Math   A typical course of study for 7th-grade math  includes numbers, measurements, geography, algebra, and probability. Typical topics include exponents and scientific notation; prime numbers; factoring; combining like terms; substituting values for variables; simplification of algebraic expressions; and calculating rate, distance, time, and mass. Geometric topics include the classification of angles and triangles; finding the unknown measurement of a triangles side; finding the volume of prisms and cylinders; and determining the slope of a line.   Students will also learn to use a variety of graphs to represent data and to interpret those graphs, and they will learn to compute odds. Students will be introduced to mean, median, and mode.   Science In seventh grade, students will continue to explore general life, earth, and physical science topics using the scientific method.   Although there isnt a specific recommended course of study of 7th-grade science, common life science topics include scientific classification; cells and cell structure; heredity and genetics; and human organ systems and their function. Earth science typically includes the effects of  weather  and climate; properties and uses of water; atmosphere; air pressure;  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹rocks, soil, and minerals; eclipses; phases of the moon; tides; and conservation; ecology and environment. Physical science includes  Newtons laws of motion; the structure of atoms and molecules; heat and energy; the Periodic Table; the chemical and physical changes of matter; elements and compounds; mixtures and solutions; and the properties of waves. Social Studies Seventh-grade social studies topics can vary greatly. As with science, there is no specific recommended course of study. For homeschooling families, the topics covered are usually influenced by their curriculum, homeschooling styles, or personal interests. World history topics may include the Middle Ages; the Renaissance; the Roman Empire; European revolutions; or World War I and World War II.   Students studying American history may cover the Industrial Revolution; the Scientific Revolution; the early 20th century including the 1920s, 1930s, and the Great Depression; and Civil Rights leaders.   Geography may include a detailed study of various regions or cultures, including the history, foods, customs; and religion of the area.  It may also focus on the geographic influences on significant historical events. Art There is no recommended course of study for seventh-grade art. However, students should be encouraged to explore the world of art to discover their interests.   Some ideas include learning to play a musical instrument; acting in a play; creating visual art such as drawing, painting, animation, pottery, or photography; or creating textile art such as fashion design, knitting, or sewing. Technology Seventh-grade students should use technology as part of their studies across the curriculum. They should be competent in their keyboarding skills and have a good understanding of online safety guidelines and copyright laws. In addition to using standard text and spreadsheet applications, students should learn to use tools for collecting data and conducting polls or surveys.  Ã‚   They may also want to publish or share their work using formats such as blogs or video-sharing sites.

What is MEC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

What is MEC - Essay Example It educates children of employees. It also targets vulnerable children of the society. It also promotes the health of the society through production of quality goods and services that are environmental friendly. The company also gears itself towards strengthening its organizational structure and service delivery. It employees qualified personnel who promotes the welfare of the company and all the shareholders. The company also invests in community infrastructure through building schools, roads and hospitals (MEC 2013). This is aimed at enhancing corporation with the outsiders. The company also maintains economic development and job creation through paying taxes to the government and offering job opportunities. The organization believes that it needs to play its part in the growth and development of the community. It also expects the government to perform its roles diligently by providing an appropriate environment. Companies are obligated to preserve the environment. The company produces goods that are environmental friendly, renewable and utilizes less energy (MEC 2013). This is aimed at reducing environmental pollution and creates a good rapport with investors. For example, the company’s textile products contain over 50% cotton or recycled polyester (MEC 2013). It is believed such products can decompose and they are recyclable. In addition, the company has strived to improve human conditions in its factories. The company has exit doors in case of a fire breakout. It also has fire extinguishers and personnel work within stipulated time. Lastly, the company promotes conservation of ecology, water catchment areas and other recreational centers. MEC focuses on working with suppliers and factories by empowering them to uphold the MEC code of conduct. The conduct usually prescribes the minimum standards that enhance environmental responsibility. The company also believes in environmental responsibility because it audits factories