[LINK] Look to the clouds not the slates

[Tom Worthington]

Steven Clark wrote:
> On 19/12/10 11:25, Tom Worthington wrote:
>> According to media reports, Microsoft is to show Windows based slate
>> (tablet) computers ...
> 
> I see devices increasingly becoming networked interfaces to computing
> resources ...

In many ways the "cloud" model of computing is an updated version of the 
1970s model of time-sharing on computer bureaus using remote submission 
of batch processing and terminals.

> But it will also put a lot of strain on the weak point of this scenario
> - the network ...

Yes. Individuals and organisations need to consider the networks their 
processing will be dependent on. It was a surprise to many when some 
undersea cables were cut 2008 and services on the other side of the 
world slowed down or stopped altogether 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_submarine_cable_disruption>.

It would seem obvious that local essential services should not be 
dependent on global links. It would be unacceptable, for example, if a 
patient can't get their test results carried out in a hospital in 
regional NSW, because a cable failed in the South China Sea.

> What is needed, in concert with expansion of the network backbone(s), is
> greater localisation (proliferation) of wi-fi portals ...

University campuses provide a good example of where WiFi coverage is 
proliferating and access from remote campuses is being provided 
<http://www.eduroam.org/>.

But if students and staff spend more time off campus it might make sense 
to do a deal with a public wireless provider. Indira Gandhi National 
Open University has been experimenting with this for several years, with 
a deals with Ericsson for laptops with 3G 
<http://www.india-server.com/news/ignou-ericsson-tie-up-for-education-14654.html>
and using SMS for English courses with Nokia: 
<http://vritesh.com/tech-news/nokia-has-join-with-ignou-to-offer-english-courses.html>.

IGNOU's e-leanring manual is wrth reading, with a chapter by Leigh 
Blackall, Univrsity of Canberra, on video: 
<http://blog.tomw.net.au/2010/12/e-learning-handbook-for-university.html>.

> The universities here (and elsewhere) have already moved their student
> email off onto Google- or Microsoft-hosted 'clouds'. ...

ANU hasn't moved their student email to Google or Microsoft. We laughed 
at the people from Google when they suggested using their system. It was 
not just the security problems, but also the business issue of giving 
away control of access to your clients to someone else.

> ... FedGov ... already have a lot of virtualisation ...

Yes, I have noted that my Green ICT students are starting to have
difficulty in coming up with suggestions to lower energy use. Their
organisations have already virtualised servers and consolidated them
into data centres. The student's say: "what do we do next?" 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/green/>.

> going on in-house, so one could argue they are already using 'clouds'?

Running applications on your own data centre is not "cloud
computing", but is is a more sensible option for government.

> ... other parties can be 'reached' if litigation or ADR are required ...

Yes, when the satellites used by the Defence Department were sold to
Singapore Telecom, DoD did not object. The ground station controlling 
them was still on Australian soil.

> Even collaborations founded upon of-the-shelf software have a rocky history.

The open source/commercial model with Moodle and similar products seems
to work well.

> Although too much centralisation runs the risk of exposure to universal
> collapse should anything befall the data centre. ...

yes, an organisation would not have just one data centre. There
would have to be several to allow for localised failures.

> Though this does raise issues for (staff and student) training:
> especially when you no longer control 'upgrade' cycles. ...

The model with Moodle is a good one. As well as conventional short
courses provided by companies supporting the software, there are
numerous  formal conferences and informal user groups. I spent a lot of
2010 at such events.

At the moment I am trying to convince my education colleagues that
professionals need formal education in how to use online communication
technology and that educators need a further level of education in how 
to use this technology for education. The irony is that little of the 
education there is in how to use online technology is done online.

> As open source software, Moodle has advantages in being cheaper to
> acquire and (hopefully) to maintain as well. ...

I doubt that the cost savings with Moodle are that significant, if they
exist at all. The software licensing cost would be small compared to the 
cost of fitting the software into your organisation and training people 
to use it.

> ... such services are beginning to be marketed to SMEs.

When I bought a new computer running Linux, I had to find a replacement
for my Windows based accounting software. I ended up with a web based
service, which works reasonably well. This requires some rethinking of
some processes. I could not find a function for exporting a copy of the
accounts to my accountant to prepare my tax return. What the system has
instead is that I issue the accountant with a read only access to the
system and they can then extract what they need 
<http://blog.tomw.net.au/2009/08/web-based-accounting-package.html>.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
Visiting Scientist, CSIRO ICT Centre: http://bit.ly/csiro_ict_canberra