Thursday 29 July 2010
Google and Twitter defend the security of Google Apps, with other pundits seeking to condemn or defend Google’s cloud computing model. The issues rekindles the debate over the security of using Web-based applications in the workplace. Google and the cloud computing model were the victims of some jibes from
popular blog TechCrunch in the wake of a personal e-mail account hack at Twitter. he brouhaha started when TechCrunch came into possession of some 300 documents a hacker named Hacker Croll allegedly swiped from Twitter back in May.
Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone confirmed the hack after TechCrunch posted screenshots of some of the documents, adding that the hacker retrieved information from the employee’s personal e-mail account, believed to be a Yahoo Mail account. This account include Google Docs, Calendars, and other Google Apps Twitter relies on for sharing notes, spreadsheets, ideas, financial details and more within the company.
At its annual partner conference in New Orleans on Tuesday, Microsoft unveiled pricing details and launch plans for Windows Azure, the “cloud” operating system that Mr Ozzie hopes will become the online analogue to Windows on the personal computer – a platform that supports applications on the internet. Speaking last month at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, the man who took on Bill Gates’s mantle as the company’s top technology visionary confessed Microsoft, when he arrived, was not ready for the challenges of the internet: “The PC was still at the centre of how people thought about everything. It was a bit scary. Part of his response was to bring together a small team of developers to work on Azure, treating it as a separate start-up.
Building the massive computing platform on which Azure depends, and refining it to run internet services with high efficiency and reliability, has ac counted for much of the development effort. Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief strategist, says there are now more than 1m servers in the company’s datacentres, making the Microsoft “cloud” one of the world’s biggest pieces of computing infrastructure. Even Mr Ozzie concedes that Amazon has set the pace in this new market although with technology giants such as IBM and Google also eyeing up the territory, the stakes are going up fast.
When the cloud dissipates, there’s no ray of sunshine for customers that rely on cloud services. Announcement of Google’s Chrome OS plans were met with plenty of discussion about what it might mean for the future of computing. The OS is essentially a lightweight version of Linux designed to run the company’s Chrome browser to access Google’s cloud computing services, such as Gtalk, Gmail, Google Docs, and more. There are numerous benefits of using such cloud services like data persistence across multiple machines. Once power was restored, though, it took some sites several hours to come back fully. It was the second such power outage for the company’s Dallas data center in just over a week, though it’s not particularly common; as TechCrunch noted, the last time the company had a major outage was in November 2007. However, the recent incidents illustrate the problem—there are still risks associated with using the cloud.
Many of the IT pros who are evaluating cloud services name reliability as a major concern with cloud services, and have been doing so in the Ars forums and in closed-door sessions for over a year now. Many of these folks are at large companies and are used to having control over and responsibility for all of the servers that the business uses, so the idea of putting parts of their business on rented, “black box”-style cloud services makes them uneasy.
Spreadsheets can’t sort data well, there are lags between mouse clicks and the program’s response, graphics look Mickey Mouse rather than lavish. But Google, among the most aggressive cloud computing advocates, is trying to address some of those shortcomings. The company has released experimental but still very much real software that brings in some of the power of the PC, where people often use Web applications. Google Native Client–first released in 2008 but updated with a new version is a browser plug-in for securely running computationally intense software downloaded from a Web site. Google released O3D, a plug-in that lets Web-based applications tap into a computer’s graphics chip, too.
Google has demonstrated Native Client by running the Quake first-person shooter video game and a fractal graphics explorer. The company conceives of it more as a helper for existing Web applications than as a full-fledged environment for creating and running programs, like Sun Microsystems’ Java, Adobe Systems’ Flash and Flex, or Microsoft’s Silverlight.When installing software through conventional means–from a CD-ROM or installation file you specifically choose to download, for example–you have control over what’s running natively on your computer. You’re the security gatekeeper. Overall, though, Mozilla and Google are more allies than rivals. Both want to advance Web application technology, and the main competition is a continuation of the status quo with its tall barrier between Web-based applications and native software.
First, Google sent shockwaves through the tech sector with its Chrome OS, an operating system that’s challenging Microsoft in the low-end PC market. Clearly unwilling to get trapped in a corner, Microsoft launched its counterattack Monday, adding more flesh to the bones of its online services strategy. he Redmond, Wash.-based firm previewed its Office 2010 software Monday at its Worldwide Partner Conference and also announced plans to provide Office applications for free to Windows Live users. Designed to deliver Word, PowerPoint and Excel as Web services , this strategy is a clear move onto Google’s turf, but also could significantly boost Microsoft’s cloud computing efforts.
Cloud services, which offer compute power and storage via the Internet, are fast becoming one of the tech sector’s hottest technologies, thanks in no small part to the IT spending slowdown. Companies like IBM(IBM Quote), Microsoft and Amazon are pushing cloud services as a way for firms to avoid the upfront costs of hardware and software. However, cloud computing is still in its relative infancy. Stymied by vendor in-fighting and businesses’ reluctance to relinquish control of key applications and data, the technology is nowhere near widespread adoption. Microsoft’s decision to provide Office as an online service may nonetheless provide a major boost to the cloud agenda, according to Roger Kay, president of analyst firm Endpoint Technologies Associates.
Microsoft delivers its own haymaker with Windows 2010, a cloud-based version of its Windows Office suite of word-processing, spreadsheet, and PowerPoint software. The new line of products won’t be immediately available to customers under a beta tag; rather, Microsoft will give developers and tech professionals a sneak peek at the software, giving them a chance to suggest improvements and build buzz.
Microsoft has a built-in advantage when it gets ready to introduce the new cloud-based suite. Access to the software will be immediately available to anyone with a Microsoft Live account such as Hotmail. That means some 400 million people will be able to access the software with a few clicks. On the other hand, Microsoft has been damn slow getting to this point while Google has been offering cloud-based software via its Google Apps products for quite some time.
If you’d like to take a look at Microsoft’s belated venture into the cloud, both TechCrunch and PC Magazine have looked over the products and offer thorough reviews. Microsoft has even set up a Web site to offer videos showcasing the new suite. But as the name implies, Microsoft 2010 won’t be available for public use for quite some time.
Microsoft made the announcement at the opening of a Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans. Next-generation Office, Visio, Project, and SharePoint Server programs to be released in the first half of next year are being given to tens of thousands of people selected to test the nearly completed software. A key upgrade to widely-used Office is that online hosting will make it possible for users to access projects from any Internet-linked computers and to collaborate online in real time. Office Web applications will be lightweight, browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote that provide access to documents from anywhere, according to Microsoft. There will be online “co-authoring” capabilities in Word, PowerPoint and OneNote.
Microsoft’s current version, Office 2007, allows online collaboration, but not in the real-time manner promised by its successor. “We wanted to make sure when we brought applications to the Web we did it in a way that we can really delight customers and not sacrifice quality,” Office group product manager Chris Bryant told AFP. “We’re really raising the bar; the level of expectation for what Web-based applications can do and how they work into real complements for the apps you use on the desktop, using personal computers.” The move comes as Google strives to lure computer users to text, spreadsheet, and other applications hosted online and offered as low-cost or free services. The California firm’s Google Apps are part of a growing online trend of offering software as services on the Internet, or “in the cloud,” as opposed to people needing to buy, install and maintain programs on their own machines.
Microsoft has an edge with large corporations, where Office is widespread and often multi-year technology contracts are in place, according to Rosoff. ”Google has a better chance of getting traction with small businesses and consumers where Microsoft isn’t so entrenched,” Rosoff said. The war between Microsoft and Google has been escalating, with Google last week announcing plans to create an open-source “Chrome OS” computer operating system tailored for netbooks. Chrome OS will be a direct challenge to Windows operating systems at the heart of Microsoft’s global software empire.
Whether he’s at home, at work, at the lake or at his in-laws, whenever Tommy Vallier needs to send an invoice to clients, he just goes to the nearest computer. It doesn’t matter which computer, because no one hard drive stores his files. It’s all in the cloud. On the Internet. Forget Microsoft Office, Vallier, a freelance Web developer in Kingston, writes and saves his documents on Google Docs. I now use the Web to manage my email, calendar, contacts, to- do lists, quick notes to myself, news, podcasts, photos, videos and documents,” he said. “It’s all about access.
Hence the great promise of cloud computing, the idea of putting all computing needs on the Internet rather than a local machine. All your data and applications are accessible from anywhere, at any time. No need to invest in expensive servers without knowing if you’ll use them to capacity. No need for multiple systems administrators in the IT back office. With cloud computing, you let someone else worry about the hardware and software and pay them only for what you use. This has been the mantra of major cloud computing vendors scrambling for customers, companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, and myriad smaller providers.
On the consumer side, Microsoft and Telus will soon let Canadians store their medical records online to share with doctors. There’s no shortage of analogies for cloud computing. It has been described as taking a taxi rather than buying a car. Or using the postal service instead of having a private delivery truck. In his book The Big Switch, journalist Nicholas Carr compared it to the rise of the electricity grid, when factories stopped buying and running their own power generators and paid utilities. One can also prototype ideas and applications on the Web with a limited number of test users, creating a low-cost virtual test lab. Files on office computers and mobile gadgets are automatically synchronized.
While the recession has us looking short term, a perfect storm is forming for cloud computing long term. The perfect storm metaphor is perfect, but not because it’s another cloud pun. Look at the multiple fronts converging together: mobility, acceptance, economics, and uncertainty, IBM, and Google. For the first time, virtually all computing services can be delivered over the web, the world is flat. The web is delivering quality and secure services to consumers, raising both awareness and acceptance to cloud services such as airline booking systems, banking, and personal email services. Economics for cloud computing are shifting to favor the cloud, intensified by a down economy. Uncertainty based on rapid technology improvements are keeping some from long term depreciation schedules.
In a recent NYT article, IBM is now legitimizing cloud computing. The article suggests that IBM legitimized Linux and the personal computers as a prerequisite to widespread adoption. But IBM is not alone. Google and Amazon are enabling self hosted clouds in fascinating new models. Google recently published a how to guide for creating “warehouse scale” machines. This is no longer bleeding edge technology seeking an application.
The Prince George’s County Public School System near Washington, D.C., for example, about a year ago elected to shift the e-mail for its staff to Google Apps. Laurie Tranmer, e-mail services manager for Prince George’s schools, says there are about 28,000 Google Apps accounts for staff and others, and in the process her department has migrated off several Microsoft Exchange servers and storage-area networks. t’s meant saving a much-appreciated $1 million in the midst of a fiscal crisis, Tranmer says. But the school system, which gets Google Apps Education Edition for free, does pay for other security-related and archiving services it elected to use, including Google Message Discovery, the Google Postini service that lets authorized users search for past e-mail needed to respond to informal or official legal inquiries.
Adam Swidler, senior product marketing manager at Google Postini, says the company is courting both K-12 and university school systems in the United States and abroad with the free Google Apps Education Edition, which includes e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, instant messaging and shared calendar. Google Apps Education Edition is expected to remain free into the foreseeable future, Swidler says. The Google Message Discovery service, in which Google provides up to 10 years of e-mail retention, costs $11 per user per year for education, a discount off the Business Edition price
