Cloud computing is a model for providing on-demand access to a shared pool of computing resources, including networks, storage and applications. The concept is attractive, promising that you can access any application and any of your data anywhere you have access to a browser and the Internet.

In the ideal Cloud, you won’t need a personal computer; a thin client with a browser is all you’ll need because all the apps you’ll ever need will be in the Cloud. You also won’t need to have local storage like a hard drive or even a USB flash drive; all the storage you’ll ever need will also be in the Cloud.

In a way, we are already using Cloud computing: whenever you access your Google Mail, you are accessing Gmail thru the Internet and saving the emails on Google’s servers connected to the Internet. That is why you can access your Gmail account anywhere in the world. Same goes with Yahoo! mail and other Internet-based emails.

For Cloud computing to really take off in a big way, we need two (or three) important things to happen first: 1) ubiquitous access to the Internet, and 2) a secure Cloud. A third prerequisite can be added to #1: fast, unlimited Internet access. Most of us in the developing world have prerequisite 1, but prerequisite 2 is sorely lacking. Until now.

UT Dallas researchers have released software tools that they claim will make cloud computing secure. These include open source tools, including Apache’s Hadoop distributed file system, Google’s Mapreduce and the University of Cambridge’s XEN Virtual Machine monitor — and security features built on top of this infrastructure.

The first release consists of a repository of tools that provide secure query processing capabilities, preventing unauthorized access to sensitive data. Future releases will address security to data storage services by storing sensitive data in encrypted format.

At the heart of the work is a 4-layered framework consisting of a network layer, an infrastructure layer, a storage layer and a data layer.

Read the article at: PhysOrg.

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Today EMC released the findings of the new EMC-sponsored IDC study titled, “The Digital Universe Decade – Are you Ready?” The study measures and forecasts data growth rate, i.e. the amount of digital information created and copied annually worldwide. In 2009, the amount of digital information grew 62 per cent over 2008 to 800 billion gigabytes (0.8 Zettabytes).

One Zettabyte equals one trillion gigabytes.

The amount of digital information created in 2010 is estimated to reach 1.2 Zettabytes. That’s the total estimation from all the tweets, blogging, facebook postings, etc. How much is 1.2ZB in practical terms? According to the study, it can be thought of as a full-length episode of FOX TV’s hit series “24” running continuously for 125 million years. Or, as all the people on Earth tweeting continuously for 100 years. One third of all that data will pass through the Cloud.

PRESS RELEASE

Study Projects Nearly 45-Fold Annual Data Growth by 2020

Cloud Computing to Stimulate More than US$1 Trillion in Incremental Business Revenue by 2014

HOPKINTON, Mass. – May 4, 2010 – EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced results of the new EMC-sponsored IDC study titled “The Digital Universe Decade – Are You Ready?*” This fourth update to the groundbreaking Digital Universe data growth rate study measures and forecasts the vast amount of digital information created and copied annually and its implications for individuals and Information Technology professionals worldwide.

* IDC Digital Universe Study, sponsored by EMC, May 2010

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