Lecture Post: Cloud Computing

The implementation of True Tennis Live will revolutionize tennis matches for average players of all over. Using modern technology this idea will make an interactive tennis court that speaks to the players and tells them when the ball goes out of bounds so that there is never an argument over the point.

This past week in the lectures of IST 195, we discussed an up and coming type of technology called cloud computing. The best way to explain this concept is the use of computing resources (hardware and software) that are delivered as a service over a network (typically the Internet). We need this developing technology today because it allows us to keep storage for ourselves not directly on our own devices but rather in the air. This is also very productive because in the cloud, you only pay for the amount of storage you use up not a random number of space. My idea could be developed around this service to save specific scores of matches in the cloud so that we don't have to take up so much of our own space for storage. 

There are 3 main types of this service: Infrastructure, Platforms, and Software. The infrastructure as a service is a model in which an organization outsources the equipment used to support operations, including storage, hardware, and servers networking components. The service provider owns the equipment and is responsible for housing, running and maintaining it.  Platform as a Service is a way to rent hardware, operating systems, storage and network capacity over the Internet. The service delivery model allows the customer to rent virtualized servers and associated services for running existing applications or developing and testing new ones. The Software component is mostly used by people and is  a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet.

There are many different examples of the different types of cloud computing in our society today. A very popular one is Google docs which allows users to type documents or make up spreadsheets online for free rather than using Microsoft word (an expensive service). Apple also uses iCloud as a service which enables users to backup their information on devices and shares it on other devices owned by the same user. Lastly, Amazon has over 30 different cloud services but the two most popular are Amazon S3 (simple storage service) and Amazon EC2 (elastic computing cloud). There are plenty of other cloud services out today but I find these to be some of the most influential of the assortment.