Cloud Computing : The review - Chapter 1

The Cloud Computing

Virtualization was a concept developed when we found that the hosting servers were not even using the 10% capacity of what they can normally do. The virtualization developed better options for using your dedicated server and also maintaining hosting on low costs than what it used to be, with maintaining dedicated servers. The developments in virtualization finally gave way to the new and innovative concept, the cloud. The cloud said to be an adaptation from telecoms industry where the exchanges used to manage load and deliver services without the end user knowledge, the concept as described in Wikipedia is similar to what electricity is to normal people, we generally do not have to have the know how and still use the max about it.

The cloud was quite widely accepted for the simple reason said above, the services were delivered quicker, at low cost. With the cloud it also became a scalable option to develop your network rather than to plan how the next hardware should be or to plan how the settings should be. Another point that went about it making the concept hit was the remote management option for the services, one could easily use any web-enabled mobile/stationary device to get this managed. This was new as normally in earlier days, DC visits had to be done on changes in hardware or server root settings. Another plus that came about with public clouds is the use of proprietary software's available through the cloud as if it were installed on to the local system. Also the services were delivered through a common point so the management was set much better.

So that's how the cloud is .. the next name for convenient hosting! Lets gear up!

What is Cloud Computing?

Image via Wikipedia

The above diagram describes cloud the best, it is nothing but a cluster of servers which is bound together to provide services through a front-end and hiding the infrastructure involved in the process. But this is different from the classic clusters in the sense that the services offered by a cloud server is available to all clients and they will be able to use them simultaneously, thus cutting the cost for the client as they pay for the service they use and also for the host in the sense they do not need multiple licenses for a common software!

That is the interesting part, again the data is not located on a static area like on usual hosting, it is distributed making this more reliable in terms or recovery.

Basically the software systems on cloud are a set of services that do communicate with each other over a Application Programming Interface or API and the web services are maintained over a 3tier architecture. 

The Concept

The concept of cloud is simple, there are individual components that do work best on a particular service and these are combined together over a common interface. Does this sound similar? Yes, your body itself, you have your eyes doing the best they can, you have your mouth doing the best they are supposed to do and they work on the common interface that is the human body.

So once the concept was laid, the cloud service development was simpler, you do have your infrastructure engineered to do so. The system designed was split into two parts :

i) The front-end - This is what we see, when we use Zoho or Google office or similar, the front-end interface that directly interacts with you. So this is the part most of us are concerned with and this is the first important part when it comes to Cloud computing.

ii) The Back-end - This part is what is hidden from us, the underlying hardware, the applications and the storage, that acts as backbone for the cloud computing. 

The very concept of cloud computing was developed in 1960 by John McCarthy, and as you will find this was much earlier than the concept of virtualization that happened. Douglas Parkhills had a through study on the concept of cloud computing in his Book, The Challenge of the Computer Utility.

Image via Wikipedia

Its not far when you will be able to view a cloud design of this nature where you have all applications and all services combined up to make up a inter-cloud, as once happened to the Internet!

Why the name Cloud?

The name was borrowed from telephone exchanges which had certain apps which were used to switch calls to maintain load on the network. The very first use of the word Cloud was by Prof. Ramnath Chellappa, in 1997 in his work : Intermediaries in Cloud-Computing, presented at the INFORMS meeting in Dallas in 1997. 

The quote was made that : "computing paradigm where the boundaries of computing will be determined by economic rationale rather than technical limits alone." 

which now tends to be getting in as true. Amazon was one of the first providers to explore the opportunities, they found that their data center, the-dotcom bubble was not using even 10% of the total traffic that it can handle and there were only occassional spikes on the network. And finally in 2006, Amazon was able to develop Amazon Web Service or the AWS which went on to use a cloud computing for external apps development

In later stages, Google, IBM and the few universities initiated the research on Cloud computing. In 2008,Eucalyptus - the first opensource AWS-API for developing prviate clouds was launched followed byOpenNebula, which was an RESERVOIR europeon union funded project, the software helped in the development of private and hybrid clouds and this was again an Open source software.  The later days of cloud computing saw the QoS developments for the cloud platform.

I will try to cover more technical grounds in the next chapter. Hope this was simple!!

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Euthanasia : Mercy OR Crime?

Today while reading through the news paper, I glanced over this topic; Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug a victim of Sexual assault by wardboy, who is currently in the state of comma and has been so for the past 37 years – Pinki Virani, a friend to Aruna had requested the court to permit active euthanasia on the patient as she is currently surviving on medical equipments. The incident is elaborately described at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aruna_Shanbaug

Considering this special case, court has permitted an assited suicide or passive euthanasia which involved cutting off food, medicines and withdrawing medical aids. Although the government of India has voted against this and opposes the rule. There is a large space in this rule which could be utillized by people to proceed with these killings for wealth, this iswhat the claim goes from the goverment. So the permissions will be required for the process each time there is a plead, and the permissions should be granted by respective courts.

Oregon, Washington, Montana, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg are the only jurisdictions around the world where Euthanasia is legal and almost every other country is against this concept. The obvious reason is the medical ethics and the oath doctors take to protect life to the limit they can. 

The patients council quotes that

“Oregon and Washington passed laws and Montana’s Supreme Court determined that assisted suicide is a medical treatment.(1) The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg permit both euthanasia and assisted suicide. Although euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal in Switzerland, assisted suicide is penalized only if it is carried out “from selfish motives.”(2)”

so basically the concept is too complicated to be laid down flat and define rules. 

What is Euthanasia?

Euthanasia is an act in which a third party is involved in death of a patient, this involves giving lethal medicines or suffocating the person using medical equipments, this is considered crime in all countries except the one’s mentioned above. 

Another option available is known as assisted suicide, which is when the patient is involved in triggering the cause of death and the doctors assist in the process by setting up the scenario or equipments needed for suicide. This again conflicts with IPC ( Indian Penal Code ) 309 article which considers suicide as a crime. But again, the patients will is what matters. 

Do we need Euthanasia?

On a normal ground every citizen will oppose this rule, but for patients who are sufferring from extreme pain and where the cure is at infinity, it is always best to releive them from pain. No government or people can ask a person to suffer. So if the option is advisable for the patients who live their life on machines, suffer extreme pain and where the medical cure is impossible. The patient has every right to plea for a assisted suicide. But again this should be done under specified guidelines and I feel court should be involved to decide whether the permissions should be granted. The shear reason to prevent misuse of such an option to cheat a person from his wealth or similar. In a country where every law is being bend down for the use of criminals this will be essential.

This is a hard thought, I dont know if I have arrived at a conclusion yet, but the question still holds whether you wish your loved ones to suicide in front of you or will you want them to live until god decides ?

Read more: http://socyberty.com/issues/euthanasia-is-this-mercy/#ixzz1GHw8boqy
The contents displayed are copyrighted to Prasul Surendran, any unauthorized use or promotion is illegal.