June 2009 - Issue #6
Cloud riders to be the envy of web surfers
Opinion piece by Richard Constantine
View articles in related topics: Computing, Opinion, Information Technology
A quick scan of the daily newspaper shows just how much data-driven information is being produced these days and how everyone, from decision-makers in business and government to scientists and researchers, is drawing on ever-increasing volumes of data to try to solve problems.
However, good decision-making requires more than just great volumes of data, no matter how accurate and up-to-date it is. Data has to be carefully mined for the right information, for the gold to be sifted from the gravel.
Nowhere is data volume more a quality assurance (QA) issue than at universities, where researchers, by the very nature of their job, are confronted with vast quantities of data from electronic sensors, all manner of measuring tools, analytical equipment and myriad other information streams.
The data that is stored and processed then forms part of a network of ‘information banks’, increasingly accessible to researchers and other users via the internet. While proximity to an information bank is no longer an issue, the ability to access and process information from any location is still a problem.
The new era that is emerging is ‘cloud computing’, which allows people to access software applications and their own files using any internet-connected computer, anywhere, at any time.
An analogy is the provision of essential services such as electricity, water and gas. The generation and distribution of these services occurs off-site and the consumer simply needs to ‘plug in’ to the services concerned to have them delivered down the line.
All of the major IT organisations, such as IBM, Cisco Systems, Dell, Symantec, Sun Microsystems, HP and Facebook, as well as many small organisations, have already developed their own dedicated cloud computing divisions to organise the development, marketing and sales of hardware, software and services in this burgeoning area. Microsoft, Google and others have developed a range of web-based applications and, importantly, web-based storage.
At universities like Swinburne University of Technology, students and staff are now expecting a more flexible and dynamic IT environment that will cater for them in moving between campuses, including offshore campuses, and other locations. Telecommuting, for part of the week at least, is now a more viable option for many university staff. Applications such as learning management systems, student administration systems, human resources and finance systems, to name a few, need to be available anywhere at anytime. Cloud computing or delivery via the internet is shaping as the answer to this increasing need for mobility.
A number of the basic requirements for effective cloud computing are already in place, such as sufficient bandwidth with reliable, high-speed connectivity and a range of software applications already available via the web.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 67 per cent of Australian households have home internet access and, of these, more than 43 per cent are high-speed broadband users. It is likely that the Australian online experience would be similar to that in America, where research undertaken through the Pew Research Center’s ‘Internet & American Life’ project has shown that 69 per cent of Americans online now use cloud computing activities.
While the fog is starting to lift to reveal the true form of the cloud, there are still blurred patches. The most critical element that is yet to be resolved relates to the remote storage of corporate data. It raises obvious questions about security, privacy, intellectual property and reliability of access.
Who has jurisdiction over data stored in remote locations? Do we know what is happening behind the service boundary? Who is in control? What processes are in place to guarantee access to critical data or files as and when needed? It behoves us all to ensure that governance arrangements and contract terms relating to service delivery, including how the services are accessed, are fully researched and resolved.
A recent detailed study of cloud computing by the University of California, Berkeley, has worked through these issues and identified a number of potential solutions, such as having multiple cloud-computing providers to ensure the availability of service and access to critical data. While the authors recognise the lack of clarity at the present time they are still optimistic for the future of cloud computing.
Despite the issues to be resolved, most indications suggest that it will not be too long before we won’t just be surfing the web, we’ll be riding the cloud.
Associate Professor Richard Constantine is Swinburne University of Technology’s Chief Information Officer.
