networking-info

There are strong synergies between Open Source Software (OSS) and cloud computing. The cloud makes it a great platform on which OSS business models ranging from powering the cloud to offer OSS as SaaS can flourish. There are many issues around licenses and IP indemnification and discussion around commercial open source software strategy to support progressive OSS business models. I do see the cloud computing as a catalyst in innovating OSS business models. Powering the cloud: OSS can power the cloud infrastructure similarly as it has been powering the on-premise infrastructure to let cloud vendors minimize the TCO. Not so discussed benefit of the OSS for cloud is the use of core algorithms such as MapReduce and Google Protocol Buffer that are core to the parallel computing and lightweight data exchange. There are hundreds of other open (source) standards and algorithms that are a perfect fit for powering the cloud. OSS lifecycle management: There is a disconnect between the source...

Earlier this week I announced that I will be presenting at SYS-CON's 2nd International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo in New York City this coming March 30-April 1, 2009. During the Cloud & the Government Session at Cloud Computing Expo I will discuss the results of a new survey on cloud computing in the Federal government. Federal government organizations have typically been viewed as cautious adopters of new technologies. However, as expressed by now President Obama's transition team , cloud computing has captured the attention of many government IT decision makers. The U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Information System Agency is, in fact, already fielding a cloud computing infrastructure. In October 2008, through on-line surveys and in-depth interviews, customer requirements and concerns were gathered in order to shed light on current cloud computing offerings targeted for government customer. In February 2009, the survey will be repeated in order to gauge how...

Today's announcement by CSC reinforced the strong wave of cloud computing towards the Federal space. Ranked by Washington Technology Magazine as 9th largest (by contract dollar value) government contractor, this practically guarantees a bloody battle over the Federal cloud market. "Together, CSC and Terremark will offer cloud services that include computing, storage and disaster recovery/continuity of operations that are delivered from a highly secure and reliable environment, located at Terremark's datacenter in Culpeper, Va. 'Terremark and CSC look forward to delivering a portfolio of cloud computing resources that will allow our government customers to implement IT services for mission-critical applications in minutes, not days," said Jamie Dos Santos, president and chief executive officer of Terremark Federal Group. "Instead of buying costly, cumbersome hardware, this offering provides the customer access to a resource pool of processing, storage and ne...

TCP/IP uses 32 bits, or four numbers between 0 and 255, to address a computer. IP Addresses Each computer must have an IP address before it can connect to the Internet. Each IP packet must have an address before it can be sent to another computer. This is an IP address: 192.68.20.50 This might be the same IP address: www.w3schools.com An IP Address Contains 4 Numbers. Each computer must have a unique IP address. This is your IP address: 196.217.223.127 TCP/IP uses four numbers to address a computer. The numbers are always between 0 and 255. IP addresses are normally written as four numbers separated by a period, like this: 192.168.1.50 . 32 Bits = 4 Bytes TCP/IP uses 32 bits addressing. One computer byte is 8 bits. So TCP/IP uses 4 computer bytes. A computer byte can contain 256 different values: 00000000, 00000001, 00000010, 00000011, 00000100, 00000101, 00000110, 00000111, 00001000 .......and all the way up to 11111111. Now you know why a TCP/IP...

TCP/IP is a large collection of different communication protocols. A Family of Protocols TCP/IP is a large collection of different communication protocols based upon the two original protocols TCP and IP. TCP - Transmission Control Protocol TCP is used for transmission of data from an application to the network. TCP is responsible for breaking data down into IP packets before they are sent, and for assembling the packets when they arrive. IP - Internet Protocol IP takes care of the communication with other computers. IP is responsible for the sending and receiving data packets over the Internet. HTTP - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol HTTP takes care of the communication between a web server and a web browser. HTTP is used for sending requests from a web client (a browser) to a web server, returning web content (web pages) from the server back to the client. HTTPS - Secure HTTP HTTPS takes care of secure communication between a web server ...

Email is one of the most important uses of TCP/IP. You Don't When you write an email, you don't use TCP/IP. When you write an email, you use an email program like Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook or Netscape Communicator. Your Email Program Does Your email program uses different TCP/IP protocols: It sends your emails using SMTP It can download your emails from an email server using POP It can connect to an email server using IMAP SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol The SMTP protocol is used for the transmission of e-mails. SMTP takes care of sending your email to another computer. Normally your email is sent to an email server (SMTP server), and then to another server or servers, and finally to its destination. SMTP can only transmit pure text. It cannot transmit binary data like pictures, sounds or movies. SMTP uses the MIME protocol to send binary data across TCP/IP networks. The MIME protocol converts binary data to pure text. POP -...

TCP/IP is the communication protocol for the Internet. Computer Communication Protocol A computer communication protocol is a description of the rules computers must follow to communicate with each other. What is TCP/IP? TCP/IP is the communication protocol for communication between computers on the Internet. TCP/IP stands for T ransmission C ontrol P rotocol / I nternet P rotocol. TCP/IP defines how electronic devices (like computers) should be connected to the Internet, and how data should be transmitted between them. Inside TCP/IP Inside the TCP/IP standard there are several protocols for handling data communication: TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) communication between applications UDP (User Datagram Protocol) simple communication between applications IP (Internet Protocol) communication between computers ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) for errors and statistics DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) for dynamic addressing TCP Uses a ...

TCP/IP is the communication protocol for the Internet. In this tutorial you will learn what TCP/IP is, and how it works. TCP/IP is the Internet Communication Protocol A communication protocol is a description of the rules computers must follow to communicate with each other. The Internet communication protocol defines the rules for computer communication over the Internet. Your Browser and Your Server Use TCP/IP Internet browsers and Internet servers use TCP/IP to connect to the Internet. Your browser uses TCP/IP to access Internet servers, and servers use TCP/IP to send HTML back to your browser. Your E-Mail Uses TCP/IP Your e-mail program uses TCP/IP to connect to the Internet for sending and receiving e-mails. Your Internet Address is TCP/IP Your Internet address "196.217.223.127" is a part of the standard TCP/IP protocol (and so is your domain name "www.someonesplace.com").

This is clearly the question on the minds and lips of every government IT decsionmaker in town. Why should a government agency even consider cloud computing?   In reality, the decision process is no different than any other IT management decision, “Cloud IT” options should be compared to “Traditional IT” approaches. As Frank Gens of IDC alluded to when he framed the cloud opportunity for IT suppliers, agencies have four options when deciding if and how to improve their IT infrastructure. “Traditional IT” products and services to enhance traditional agency services; "Cloud IT” products and services to enhance traditional agency services; Traditional IT” products and services to create agency specific cloud services; and "Cloud IT” products and services to create agency specific cloud services. In a ZDnet blog post that compared traditional with cloud IT, Dion Hinchcliffe summarized the differences as shown in the table below.   Traditional IT ...

Wikipedia  “A wargame is a game that represents a military operation.”  “Military simulations, also known informally as war games, are simulations in which theories of warfare can be tested and refined without the need for actual hostilities” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For ages, simulations and wargames have been used by the military to prepare for eventual future operations. During the Cold War, countless battles between the red and blue forces were set-up, run and reset in preparation for the conflict that thankfully never came. Some contend that these wargames, in fact, were instrumental in preventing a global nuclear holocaust. As an outgrowth of this apparent success, business war games also came in vogue as a tool to help managers develop and execute business strategies more successfully. In 2005 there was actually an all-day “ Battle for Clicks ” war game between students from MIT Sloan School of Management an...

Yesterday, President Barack Obama's transition team released a new video touting the benefits of cloud computing and government transparency. "Cloud computing, which allows consumers and institutions to access their files and projects anywhere via the Internet "is an important change for the federal government because it is dramatically cheaper than the old fashioned way of doing computing infrastructure," said team member Andrew McLaughlin, head of global public policy and government affairs for Google, a longtime supporter of cloud services. As stated by Andrew McLaughlin, Technology Innovation and Governmental Reform, a shift to cloud computing represents one of the most important transformations that the Federal government will go through over the next 10 years. " The First Cybergenic President of America " is sure to make cloud computing, along with the Blackberry, a major tool for realizing his goal of remaking America. Paul McDougall of Information...

Thanks goes out to Twitter_Tips for a link to Government agencies on Twitter: a few comprehensive sites posted by lindyjb which includes the following: The Government’s A-Twitter: A Comprehensive List of Government Twitter Feeds - from Alexandra Rampy, aka socialbutterfly The US Government Catches the Twitter Bug, And Amazingly, Does it Well - from the Eric Krangel, Silicon Insider ; and GovTwit Directory - BearingPoint Blog

Last September in " Ambient Awareness. The cloud killer app? " and " The Cloud Wins in Minneapolis at the RNC! ", I wrote about how the cloud infrastructure and microblogging could be used tactically to great effect. Although its clearly still in an early phase, some government entities are now experimenting with Twitter. In the article " Governments use Twitter for Emergency Alerts, Traffic Notices and More " pilot uses include: Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) updates its Twitter page with bulletins about structural fires, the number of responding firefighters, and injuries and casualties; Portland (Ore.) Police Department tweets about crime reports and sometimes asks the public for leads in cold cases; The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) updates its feed with traffic alerts and route changes for ferry vessels; and The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) tweets trivia questions and hypotheticals. Even the Environment protection Agenc...

Bob Gourley, Crucial Point CTO and former DIA CTO, just posted   Cloud Computing and Net Centric Operations  on his website CTOvision . In it he outlines how the OSD and ASD NII strategy to enable net-centric operations has benefited from the advent of cloud computing. Of particular note is his list of key principles for OSD implementation of cloud computing: The importance of mission-focused engineering. This key point is already embodied in the ASD NII Strategic Plan, but is worth restating to keep it at the forefront of all IT discussions in the department. The continual need for security, including data confidentiality, integrity and availability. All DoD computing approaches must be engineered to be in total consonance with DoD guidelines to assure DoD information, information systems and information infrastructure. Cloud Computing, when engineered right, makes dramatic, positive changes to the mission assurance posture of DoD. Cloud computing enables stronger end point security ...

Mark Penn, the author of Microtrends , has written an article in WSJ describing information shoppers . These shoppers are the consumers who go online to find all the related information ahead of time before making a purchase. The traditional sales people and the TV commercials don't interest them and do not fulfill their information appetite. I enjoyed reading Microtrends and this article does a great job highlighting a psycho-demographics that marketers will have trouble going after using traditional approaches. The marketers should pay close attention to this trend. The emotional appeal of a brand could help attract consumers to the products but may not necessarily translate into sale unless info shoppers are satisfied with the necessary information for a given situation to make that decision. Situational Marketing: The marketing campaigns, active or passive, miss the real situational context. The consumers are making a decision under specific circumstances that I would describe...

Check out the top vote getters for suggestions to the nations's first CTO ! #5 with 5,835 votes Open Government Data (APIs, XML, RSS) We can unleash a wave of civic innovation if we open up government data to programmers. The government has a treasure trove of information: legislation, budgets, voter files, campaign finance data, census data, etc. Let's STANDARDIZE, STRUCTURE, and OPEN up this data. #4 with 6,460 votes Complete the job on metrication that Ronald Reagan defunded The government has failed to take the lead on completing the task of moving the country completely to the SI metric system. George H.W. Bush tried to do something about it, but gave the bureaucrats an easy out. Failure to follow the same measurement standards as the rest of the world is costing US industry something like $1 trillion per year. #3 with 8,454 votes Repeal the Digital Milennium Copyright Act (DMCA) It is evident that the framers of the infamous Digital Millenium Copyright Act intended it...

2009 is off to a fast start with the following events on the horizon! February 2009 - “Bi-Annual On-line Government Cloud Computing Survey", On-line February 3, 2009 - Open Group Enterprise Cloud Computing Summit , San Diego, CA March 12 - FOSE " Transforming Government Technology with Cloud Computing ", Washington, DC March 30 - Apr 1, 2009 - Int’l Cloud Computing Conf. & Expo , New York, NY April 2009 (Tentative): Office of the Secretary of Defense, Networks and Information Integration "Cloud Computing for Tactical Networks" Conference, Washington, DC April 20-24, 2009 - Cloud Slam '09: Cloud Computing Virtual Conference , On-Line April 29, 2009 - 1105 Government Cloud Computing 2009 , Washington, DC See you there !!

The Israeli Association of Grid Technologies (IGT) has made its recent IGT 2008 World Summit of Cloud Computing available on-line. Speakers include: Day 1: Stevie Clifton, Co-Founder & CTO Animoto ," Animoto Cloud Success Story " Nir Antebi, Senior Software Engineer Intel, " How Intel's Cloud Computing System Acelerates Chip Design " Simone Brunozzi, Web Services Evangelist Amazon, " Amazon Web Services, EC2, S3 and Beyond " Jon Mountjoy, Developer Relations Manager Salesforce.com, " Cloud Computing in Practice: fast Application Development and Delivery on Force.com " Russ Daniels, VP & CTO HP Cloud Services Strategy, " Designing the CLoud: Services that anticipate our needs " Nahum Sussman, Business Development IBM Israel, "Cloud Computing - A new phase in vitualization or a new route change?" Nati Shalom, Co-Founder & CTO Gigaspaces, " Getting Ready for the Cloud " Assaf Marron, Corporate Architect...

Mark your calendars for April 29, 2009 ! 1105 Government Information Group has announced that there will be a Cloud Computing Conference at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC. "Cloud computing has been heralded as one of the top ten technologies > to watch in 2009. From DC government's adoption of Google Apps and Gmail, to DISA's Rapid Access Computing Environment (RACE), cloud computing has begun to permeate many federal, state, and local agencies." For more information visit http://www.govcloudconference.com/ .

Yesterday, Sun Microsystems announced their acquisition of Q-layer. This Belgium based company automates the deployment and management of both public and private clouds. In the press release , David Douglas, SUN's SVP of Cloud Computing said “Q-layer's technology and expertise will enhance Sun’s offerings, simplifying cloud management and speeding application deployment.” In last month's cloud computing update , Mr. Douglas outlined Sun's cloud plans so I'm expecting quite a bit from them in the next couple of months. The slides from this chalk talk are available in my slidespace .

Blogger: Anne Thomas Manes Obituary: SOA "SOA met its demise on January 1, 2009, when it was wiped out by the catastrophic impact of the economic recession. SOA is survived by its offspring: mashups, BPM, SaaS, Cloud Computing, and all other architectural approaches that depend on 'services'." This obviously sparked a few tweets with comments from Singapore, Europe and the US. I was also pointed to Five fearless predictions for SOA 2009 (Thanks Laura!), which had very excellent points including: "Vendors will de-emphasize SOA as a distinct “product” offering. There will be less hype about SOA, but that doesn’t mean it will have gone away. New solutions and applications will have service-oriented aspects. Cloud offerings will be built in accordance with SOA principles. There won’t be a lot of start-up vendors pitching SOA solutions, but plenty of start-ups will be offering Web 2.0-type and cloud-based services, which will be underpinned by SOA principles." T...

Yes, everyone is making this bold statement. In his article, David Fredh laid out the reasons quite well: The technological hype has started already but the commercial breakthrough will come in 2009. Cloud computing is being driven by providers including Amazon, Google, HP, IBM, Intel and Microsoft. The potential of the hype maybe will be clearer with the fact that Amazon price for one GB in the cloud is only $0.150 at this moment. The next amazing web services are in the Cloud. Already now, we have services like Dropbox (file synchronization) and Mozy (providing unlimited backup for only 5$ a month). More of your data will move out on the internet. Many people already have all their mails in their gmail inbox instead of in their harddrive. The same will probably happen with documents, images and music. It’s convenient, but watch out.. .who owns your data?" Al Tompkins actually listed a few of the bold statements: " Fortune magazine said: Software-as-a-service companies ha...

In a Jan. 3rd announcement , Salesforce.com announced an expansion of its global strategic alliance with Google. In announcing the availability of Force.com for Google App Engine™, the team has connected two of the industry’s leading cloud computing platforms. This could definitely help in expanding the number of applications available through cloud-based services. It also bears watching. In my earlier post on cloud interoperability , I discussed three paths to accomplishing this worthy goal: “Standards Body” Approach “Adopt Proven Technology” Approach “Customer Driven” Approach This clearly fits in the second bin. While I welcome this expansion of cloud capability, the cloud titans should also keep the greater community in mind as they move forward. That may mean a more open Salesforce.com. The quote from Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com is that,“We have an open vision for cloud computing.” Sounds good but as the late President Ronald Reagan would put it, "dover...