ITE221 – Fall 2011 – Chapter 14

Site reviewed: http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/news/1355038/Hardware-standardization-benefits-cloud-computing-virtualization

For Chapter 14, I visited SearchCloudComputing, a TechTarget website (free registration is required), to read an article on standardizing corporate IT hardware as applied to cloud computing. In the article, the author (Bridget Botelho) argues that standardizing server hardware has made sense in the past and makes even more as more and more companies move to a cloud-computing environment. She states that virtualization and cloud computing will drive standardization, since organizations will want to move their applications and data from one cloud environment to another, which will be much simpler if the organization’s hardware is relatively standardized (as opposed to a collection of widely-disparate parts). She does point out that even as virtualization and cloud computing push organizations towards standardization, OEMs are producing more and more different hardware options for various market segments – branch offices, smaller businesses, data centers, etc. – leading at least part of the market away from complete standardization.

Ultimately, I think that there are pros and cons to the argument that standardization will be helpful to organizations wanting to get into cloud computing. I don’t believe that complete standardization is the answer, personally – there are always going to be market segments where it just won’t make sense to buy a server rack to meet organizational computing needs, because a laptop is a better fit. However, for a given market segment, specifically, that segment looking to use cloud computing – standardization of associated hardware, at least to some extent, does make sense to me.

ITE221 – Fall 2011 – Chapter 13

Site reviewed: http://www.isoc.org/

For Chapter 13, I visited the Internet Society’s website. ISOC, according to their “About ISOC” page, is a non-profit organization founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education and policy, dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. They are also the home for the groups responsible for the Internet’s infrastructure standards, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). According to their Membership section, anyone can join at either a free or sustaining (paid-membership) level, and participate in conferences, lectures, and local group chapters. At http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml, they have a “Brief History of the Internet", written by some of the individuals responsible for the Internet as we know it today; at http://www.isoc.org/tools/blogs/scenarios/, ISOC lays out several scenarios detailing how the Internet might evolve over the next 10 years or so; and at http://www.isoc.org/internet/issues/, they address a number of issues with the Internet as it is and as it is developing, such as access to the Internet, innovation, intellectual property, IPv6, Net neutrality, security, and spam, among others – each of these has its own page, going into a fair amount of detail on the subject. All in all, for anyone researching the early days of the Internet, technical details about how it works, the possible directions it might be going – really, just about anything having to do with the Internet! – this would be the best place I could think of to start. There’s a lot of fascinating reading here – I’ll be coming back here once I have a little more time to spend on exploring, I think.

ITE221 – Fall 2011 – Chapter 12

Site reviewed: http://www.freenas.org/

For Chapter 12, I visited FreeNAS.org, a site dedicated to creation and support of an open-source network-attached-storage solution. The main page is pretty bare-bones, with no ornamentation and few links. It has the fairly-standard dropdown menu across the top of the main page, with an About tab (news, information about project members, and partners & sponsors), a Features tab where you can compare the newest release of FreeNAS with earlier versions, a Support tab with chat, community-forum, commercial support, mailing list subscription links, and bug reporting, a Documentation tab, and a Search bar, along with small icons linking to social-networking sites. Down the page, there is a section for the latest FreeNAS news, with much of the rest of the site appearing to act as copies of the links accessible through the top toolbar. It wasn’t until I got most of the way to the bottom that I found a “What is FreeNAS” link, which takes the reader to a page which offers brief, friendly descriptions of what network attached storage is and why it might be useful, and what FreeBSD (the OS which runs FreeNAS, a Unix-like OS) is. Overall, there’s not a whole lot to this website – most of the action appears to be on the user community, in the forums, where one can find do-it-yourself guides to building and/or setting up one’s own NAS device, and tweaking it to give the best possible performance. If you’re looking for generic information on network-attached storage, this might not be the best choice for you. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for information on how to build your own, or hack existing hardware to run FreeNAS, you’d be well served by spending some time browsing the forums.

ITE221 – Fall 2011 – Chapter 11

Site reviewed: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/home.

For Chapter 11, I visited Microsoft.com’s Windows site. Windows, of course, is the industry-leading personal computer operating system. The Windows website, like most product websites from major manufacturers, provides links across the top of the page to things like a products page, a page dedicated to exploring Windows’ various capabilities, the Microsoft online store, a downloads page for both Windows and add-ons, and a “Help & How-to” page for customer support. There is a series of links to associated Windows-related social networking sites – Facebook, Twitter, the Windows team blog – and a host of assorted ad links for Microsoft/Windows-related add-ons and products such as SkyDrive (a Windows Live cloud-storage service), Microsoft Security Essentials (Microsoft’s free antivirus program), and a preview of the upcoming Windows 8 OS. The page is heavily oriented towards consumers, as opposed to IT professionals, hyping the entertainment options afforded by Windows, but there is a row of links towards the bottom of the page which includes info for IT professionals and developers, among others. For troubleshooting problems with Windows, or evaluating version suitability for home or office, this is the go-to site.

ITE221 – Fall 2011 – Chapter 10

Site reviewed: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index.html

For Chapter 10, I visited Oracle’s site for Java developers. Java is an Object Oriented Language widely used for small web-page applications referred to as applets, which can be run on a wide variety of hardware. The site provides links to Oracle’s main site (Products, Solutions, Downloads, Store, Support, Training, Partners, About, and Oracle Technology Network), with the rest of the page devoted to Java Developer links. There is a section for downloading various versions of Java, a series of links to APIs, technical articles, certification and training, a Java bug database, and to a variety of Java-oriented social-networking sites and forums. The “Developer Spotlight” section has a number of news articles, and there is also a blog section for the very latest Java news from Oracle. For those interested in learning about Java, beginning certification training on it, or attempting to resolve Java-related issues on one’s system, this would be THE place to start.

ITE221 - Fall 2011 - Chapter 9

Site reviewed: http://www.vonage.com/

For Chapter 9, I reviewed Vonage’s United States webpage. Vonage is one of the major commercial providers of Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) telephone services in the U.S., and offers worldwide phone service at reasonable prices. The site has links along the top for a number of important pages, including overview and FAQ pages, a calling plan page with pricing for various levels of service, a features page, and a support page. The service will function with most regular phones, as Vonage will provide customers with an adapter which connects phones to the Internet. Like most VOIP services, Vonage-connected phones will not function during power outages – they inform customers that they should enter a Network Availability Number, which will forward calls to a landline or mobile phone when the Vonage adapter is affected by an outage – and they state that home alarm systems do not work with Vonage. There is a link at the bottom describing their workaround for 911 services – the user fills out a registration for during sign-up, and Vonage passes the user’s home address and phone number on to the appropriate 911 emergency call center during a 911 call, if the user is in an E911 area.  Under certain circumstances, the user will still have to tell the dispatcher their phone number and address, and of course the service will not function during a power or Internet service failure. As long as the limitations are understood, this seems like a viable alternative for phone services for users in areas not subject to frequent power or Internet service interruptions.

ITE221 - Fall 2011 - Chapter 8

Site reviewed: http://www.wimax.com/

For Chapter 8, I reviewed Wimax.com, a page from Broadband Solutions Incorporated. WiMAX, as we learned in our Chapter 8 reading, is a wireless broadband standard (IEEE 802.16) which is intended to permit high-speed mobile wireless access over a large geographical region like a city (a metropolitan area network, or MAN), or long-distance, high-speed Internet access between widely separated fixed points, as much as 50 kilometers apart. It is not a competitor to 802.11 wireless networks, which tend to be much smaller in size (a few dozen to a few hundred meters), but does face competition from more-standard Internet service networks, as they continue to expand their service areas. The page provides resources along the left side, including an overview and FAQ page, as well as white papers, webinars, and a community form. Though small in size, the links to the left constitute the bulk of useful content on the page, as the rest of the main page is comprised of a few fairly brief blurbs with links to larger articles, and a page scroller at the bottom of the site leads to older stories. This is a provider’s website, and thus is prone to bias, but there is enough useful information in the left-side linked pages to make this a worthwhile visit for someone seeking more detail on how WiMAX works and what its benefits might be.