cloud computing

In the last couple of years, I find myself returning time and again to discussions about cloud computing, what it means, where it's going, and what the implications are for both business and end users. Meanwhile, many of you reading this have happily upgraded your Ubuntu Linux systems to release 10.04 (aka the Lucid Lynx) complete with what some argue is the best Linux desktop ever. I tend to run Kubuntu which essentially means that I'm using the KDE desktop instead of GNOME (though I do use that as well). On Tuesday, KDE released and update to its 4.4 software compilation (4.4.4) and I happily updated my own system from the Kubuntu repositories. It's a beautiful thing and with each update (and that includes GNOME by the way), I grow more and more attached to my personal desktop environment. And yet, there are those who claim it's pretty much over for the desktop as we know it.

All this flows very nicely into the discussion you are about to watch.

At this year's COSSFEST in Calgary, I took part in a lively panel discussion titled "The Death of the Desktop", essentially a free-for-all discussion on whether 'the cloud' will kill off our beloved desktop. My fellow panelists included Aaron Seigo, Brad "Renderman" Haines, Adam McDaniel, and Craig McLean. The whole thing was taped and later edited (wonderfully, I might add) to create the video you see below. Given that this was the last panel of the two day event and that they gave us beer to drink during the discussion, I should probably offer up a little disclaimer before you proceed. If you are sensitive to such things, it's entirely likely that you'll hear the occasional 'bad word'. I'm just saying. You've been warned.

Enjoy the show!

So, what do you think? We've had our say; now it's your turn. Enter your comments below.

Until next time . . .

Yesterday afternoon, I gave a talk at the University of Waterloo as part of their annual WatItIs technology conference. WatItIs is "WatITis is a one day conference for those involved in IT planning, support and decision making at the University of Waterloo." As such, it tends to cover a lot of ground, when it comes to the technology it explores. I attended talks on video conferencing by Koorus Bookan, and another by Ken Salem who gave an high-level introduction to cloud computing.

My particular talk was titled "Seeding the Clouds", a live demonstration of what's involved in deploying servers and operating systems in the cloud, and a strangely appropriate followup to Ken's talk. As part of that demonstration, I deployed an Ubuntu 8.10 64 bit system in Amazon's EC2 cloud, then logged in. I also created a machine under KVM using virt-manager on Salmar Consulting's servers. Finally, as a demonstration of a Web OS, I installed eyeOS, then had people create accounts and log in. Live. All in under 40 minutes. While I'm not much of a slide presentation guy (I prefer demonstrating things), I did prepare this somewhat lighthearted introduction to my talk if you're curious.

My sincere thanks to the University of Waterloo for making me feel welcome and for putting on a great conference. Special thanks to my good friend, Lawrence Folland, for helping me navigate my way through the campus maze. The GPS didn't help but you did. [ insert appropriate smiley here ]

I'd like to begin by apologizing for the complete lack of controversy in today's post. I appreciate your understanding in this difficult time when I am finding it hard to really get upset about anything. But I digress.

Pick up issue #2 of Ubuntu User magazine, open it to page 16, and you'll find an article titled "Cloud View" (by yours truly), the focus of which is Canonical's new offering, Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. You'll find stories hyping this for the upcoming release of Karmic Koala (a mere 14 days away as I write this) but the framework, or a technical preview thereof, was available in Ubuntu 9.04. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has partnered with Eucalyptus Systems, a company that has created an open source implementation of Amazin's EC2, or Elastic Cloud Services.

I mention this now for a couple of reasons. One is that I'm going to chat a little more about cloud computing. The second reason is that a lot has already changed since the release of my article in Ubuntu User #2.

Read the whole story on the Ubuntu User Website.

by Sally Tomasevic, MBA

Disclaimer and Preface. First, Sally Tomasevic, the author of this article, is my wife (I am Marcel Gagné, the owner of this site). Second, Sally wrote this article as part of her MBA work, but with the constant news talk about cloud computing, both hype and reality, including the inevitable quotes from Nicholas Carr, I found that Sally's work was as relevant and important now as when she wrote it, nearly three years ago. With her permission, I publish it here. -- Marcel Gagné

Introduction

Are we now, as Nicholas Carr speculates in his provocatively titled paper, "The End of Corporate Computing", on the eve of an IT revolution? While Carr claims that corporations can share utility hardware and software and champions the cost effectiveness of utility IT computing in the future, he completely fails to consider necessary elements of computing that cannot be provided for within this model.

Carr's argument centres around similarities he believes exist between the history of electrification and the IT industry. In the early 20th century, private generators were housed and maintained at corporations and over time, while utilities and associated infrastructure were built, corporations were supplied electricity by utility providers. As Carr sees it, the IT industry is transforming from a similar asset based model in which IT components reside within the walls of corporations, to a utility based model wherein all IT services can be provided by large, centralized, utility providers. Carr believes that the technological advances in IT, specifically virtualization, grid computing, and web services, are sufficient to pave the way to a utility model. In addition, he views on site corporate computing infrastructure as redundant, postulating that within the utility model, thin clients will replace PCs on corporate desktops.