Our project on cloud computing was offered to the general public in a few of ways: a group member's web log, Facebook, and class presentations. The instructor of the class also posted links to each group's research on his class web log. The only comments garnered from these sources were one from Facebook and a handful from the class, post presentation.

The comments we received and our reflection on these comments are as follows:

“Did you consider the environmental impacts that cloud computing can have?”

Cloud computing was a new concept to the group. Research done was geared more towards the basics, so the idea to research any environmental effects that cloud computing can have didn't come up.

It's pretty easy to see that if everyone converted their household servers into a cloud-provided server, that energy consumption at each household would diminish. Now, all that energy is being used by one source. How is this supposed to effect the environment? It's the same amount of power as all households combined. If the provider was to utilize green technology to power their cloud services, this combined energy consumption would be significantly decreased. It is far more feasible, and less costly, to have one central hub with greener technology than to have all the households with the same kind of green technology.

“What are your thoughts on the Patriot Act in regards to cloud computing?”

To clarify, the Patriot Act gives the United States government the ability to access data housed in the country without disclosure to the user, warrants, etc.

There are definitely issues with having a cloud service located in the States. When using a cloud service, the user is under the impression that only the provider and the user will have access to the data provided. (Unless other arrangements have been made.) So, the fact that the United States' government can retrieve this data at any time is only as much an issue as the user feels it is; if the user does not wish to have certain data available to the government, they can seek out a cloud service in a different country where a law like this doesn't exist.

“Do you think that the university can incorporate cloud computing into a computer science degree (i.e. course offered)? ”

It could potentially be incorporated into the curriculum of a course as an introduction to the possibilities and opportunities available. However, cloud computing has several aspects to it and one cannot break down cloud computing to be taught in systematic steps. If one were to break it down entirely, it comes back to computer languages, operating systems, etc. These are concepts and topics already included in a computer science degree.

Cloud computing (on a more technical level) takes all the concepts cs students learn and allows an outlet to showcase one's work, access to better hardware, etc. Not only that, but cloud computing also branches out to people beyond the realm of computer science. So would this mean that a course could be created about cloud computing that could be accessible to anyone with any computer background and what content would be taught? 

Cloud computing seems to be best left for independent research.

“Can a virtual, cloud service be faster than local, dedicated hardware?”

A standard cloud instance provided by Amazon has the equivalent computing power of a computer from 2007. This instance can be considered a unit, and several units in two's and four's, etc., can be provided. Computing power has increased ten fold since 2007, so surpassing this kind of hardware can be easily achieved by the average person. This doesn't necessarily mean the local hardware is better than that of the cloud provider. The provider is going to weigh the advantages of speed with the cost of the hardware. The provider's hardware can be just as good as locally run hardware, but is it worth the extra cost? This is solely dependent on the needs and wants of the user.

“Do cloud providers offer extra security measures? One way is to have a public key (known to the user and the dealer) and a private key (known only to the user), when dealing with cryptography.”

There are services like this available. Amazon offers a service called Multi-Factor Authentication. This adds another dimension to the traditional password login. Each user is provided with a physical piece of hardware that randomly generates a 6-digit number. This number is used in conjunction with the user's regular login information.

This course is built around risks, rewards and ethics. There are definitely risks, rewards, and some code of ethics to be aware of when dealing with cloud computing. There are three main risks when dealing with cloud computing: security, reliability, and loss of control. The rewards are cost, maintenance, location independence, and, again, security. Ethics are synonymous with anything involving the internet.

The risk with security and cloud computing is that the user's data is now in someone else's hands. The user trusts their data is being used appropriately, but they cannot be certain. The user now relies on the provider's hardware to access their data. If the provider's services go offline, the user can no longer access this data. In some cases, data could be lost forever. Both security and reliability as a risk can be tied together to represent the user's loss of control over their data; the user no longer controls the level of security surrounding their data, nor the way the data is being processed and housed.

The rewards, in most cases, and depending on the user, will outweigh the risks. The cost to run one service that multiple users can use is less than that of running one service for each user. Similar to cost; it is easier to maintain one service for several users than to worry about a service independent to each user. A service can be accessed from anywhere there is internet access, as opposed to having to be at work or home to access a certain service. A provider will have better security measures than the vast majority of users, due to the resources available to the provider.

There is little to be done in regards to ethics and cloud computing. One would think that a provider will honour the contract between themselves and the end user. Also, if provider's service was indirectly supporting some illegal activity, the provider should cease this service or even report this activity. These are just a couple examples that come to mind. However, ethics are unique to each person and the overall ethics of cloud computing cannot be stated.

[addendum: Luke's personal post-mortem comments]

I rearranged the entries for the final product on this blog, so that they are in order from part 1 to part 3 instead of reverse chronological order.

My idea of including a text transcript for the interviews was ambitious, but initially based on a plan to use speech recognition technology to produce the transcripts for us, which never worked very well in actual testing. Doing the transcription by hand would take far more time than we were willing to put in, especially because of the noise factor in two of the interviews.

I will add a streaming functionality to the interviews in the near future, honestly, I didn't think to do so before.

I think I would have also written a small application for the project to demonstrate the use of cloud computing more directly. I still intend to write the application I talked about at the presentation for the CS society, but it would have been nice to include it for marks in the project.

So my group finished its presentation on Cloud Computing today, and the presentation is below.

The script we used is here - it was really just a guideline, but hey, why not.