My Cloud Computing Reflections   

Week 8: Security in the cloud 

Transcript:   

Welcome to my cloud computing reflections. My name is Charles Roberts. This is the eighth and final week where I listen to a new podcast and go over what new topics I learned, how it challenges my initial thoughts or beliefs, and how it applies to my personal or professional life. 

This week, I listened to episode 24 of cloud cast titled cloud passage, security in the cloud with special guest Rand Wagner. Wanger is the vice president of Cloud Passage, a security-based service to help monitor user accounts and protect user data from outside cyber threats. 

Wagner’s cloud security service has special features that make it stand out from the competition. Cloud Passage allows the admin to see exactly where one’s personal account was used if not by the owner. For example, if an unauthorized user from another country makes an online purchase via amazon account, then Cloud Passage alarms the admins. These cyber-attacks have been reported to cost tens of millions of dollars for enterprises (Maurer, 2020). 

Security is not a product; it is a way of thinking. Most people, including myself, perceive cloud security as setting up the right firewall. However, cloud architecture is constantly growing, and servers are constantly shifting. The key to security is to first address how scalable and elastic the business is or will be, and then you build a security measure around it. In other words, you build the castle before you build the moat. 

To close out this podcast, this cloud cast podcast gives helpful insight on how to keep the cloud secure for all users. As Wagner mentioned, the base functions of Cloud Passage are free for all users, which includes account monitoring. With an open-source cloud provider and a free cloud security service, it is now easier than ever to create a reliable cloud-based platform for personal or commercial use. 

That’s all for now, thanks to those who listened all the way through. until we meet again. Podcast out. 

References 

Maurer, T., & Hinck, G. (2020). Cloud Security. In Cloud Security: A Primer for Policymakers (pp. 22–37). Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

As a preface, I have had lost a close family member this week, and had little time to do research on the podcast. Apologies for the low quality this week.

My Cloud Computing Reflections  

Week 7: Enstratus 

Transcript:  

Welcome to my cloud computing reflections. My name is Charles Roberts. This is the seventh week where I listen to a new podcast and go over what new topics I learned, how it challenges my initial thoughts or beliefs, and how it applies to my personal or professional life  

This week, I listened to episode 19 of the cloud cast titled who manages the cloud with special guest George Reese. Reese is the founder and CEO of enStratus, a cloud infrastructure service similar to other open source Saas such as openstack. In 2003, he split from his former company called ventura in order to form enstratus. He wanted this service to cater more towards IT departments where leading saas services are catered towards developers. 

I learned the variety of functions with enStratus. According to Reese, enStratus has automated features such as automated scaling and automated disaster recovery. 

I also learned how a CEO like Reese handles high availability and loss of data. According to reese, there two methods of resolving high availability. One way is providing redundancy to the virtual machine and the other is establishing designed to fail hardware. The ladder can run the risk of failure for certain regions. For Reese, this loss is acceptable because data stored in designed to fail hardware is never important to begin with. 

To close out this podcast, this cloud cast podcast gives thoughtful insight on the design choices for enstratus. Given the variety of saas services enstratus would be a great choice as an advanced alternative to many opensource services. Most companies would be comfortable with migrating to a free service and sticking with it for the far future. However, enstratus allows for automation in many areas which will reduce the need for maintenance and instead focus on monitoring the conditions of the virtual machine. The price of admission for enstratus may be worth it in the long run. 

That’s all for now, talk to you soon, and thank you. Podcast out. 

My Cloud Computing Reflections 

Week6: Platform as a Services 

Transcript: 

Welcome to my cloud computing reflections. My name is Charles Roberts. This is the sixth week where I listen to a new podcast and go over what new topics I learned, how it challenges my initial thoughts or beliefs, and how it applies to my personal or professional life 

This week, I listened to episode 76 of the cloud cast titled bringing depth to PaaS for real world deployments with special guest Sinclair Schuller. Schuller founded Apprenda, which is a platform as a service. Akin to RedHat and VMWare. Enterprises required their IT department to develop new applications for their clients and employees, but even after development, it would take an average of a month and a half to manage and test applications without virtualization. According to Schuller, Apprenda utilizes virtual machings to condense 90 days of testing in less than a week. 

On aspect I learned was the variety of PaaS services available. If Cloud computing was portrayed as building blocks, then PaaS it the sturdy middle that stores and protects all applications hosted on the platform (). The one Paas that has ever known and used was VMWare. I never got a chance to use Red Hat or Apprenda. 

One other aspect I learned was how JP Morgan’s department's function. According to Schuller, JP functions on siloed and are slow to transition to cloud services. JP had to make the decision to invest in train the IT department in new methods of providing virtualization for applications. This in turn builds JP’s IT department in something more like a service manager and provider. 

To close out this podcast, this cloud cast podcast helps bring light to what it is like to work in PaaS services. I was recently analyzing other companies who describe their company like the functions in Apprenda. By providing a cloud platform to enterprises, they can adopt a hybrid cloud and develop applications in a more efficeint manner. The only thing that would hold the enterprise back would be the education of not only the IT department, but also the administrations who approve the ideas of cloud applications. 

That’s all for now, talk to you soon, and thank you. Podcast out. 

References: 

Handler, S., Liu, L., & Herr, T. (2020). HOW DO PROVIDERS BUILD THE CLOUD. In DUDE, WHERE’S MY CLOUD?: A GUIDE FOR WONKS AND USERS (pp. 6–8). Atlantic Council. 

My Cloud Computing Reflections

Week 5: Object storage

Transcript:

Welcome to my cloud computing reflections. My name is Charles Roberts. This is the fifth week where I listen to a new podcast and go over what new topics I learned, how it challenges my initial thoughts or beliefs, and how it applies to my personal or professional life

This week, I listen to episode 725 of the cloud cast titled the economics and beyond object storage with special guest Jon toor. In this episode, toor talks about the history and evolution of object storage, the rise of enterprise storage, and the changing economics of cloud storage. Toor started his career as a producer of hard drives, before moving towards creating and selling his start-up businesses. Each business he makes involves computer storage in some way. I would say that I learned some new aspects of cloud storage.

I learned that object storage is the best way to secure your data. Toor states that File storage was the old way of storing data until advances in technology lead the way for object storage. Unlike File storage, Object storage has better cloud capabilities and better mutable data. This means clients will be exposed too little to no ransomware for how immutable it is. Wherever I used my student emails back when I was in college, it never crossed my mind as to why ransomware is not a big threat considering the consequences. That is because ransomware requires social engineering to reach its targets (Calder, p. 18).

I also learned that Object storage is now more cost effective than the past decade. Businesses should consider if their workload can easily run on the cloud, they have a choice to potentially cut their cost in physical computer infrastructure. When they do, that business will soon learn they don’t need to drastically change their software, and let their applications run close to the data. It begs the question: If it is so effective, why isn’t every business utilizing object storage? Perhaps due to certain applications not being compatible with the cloud, or perhaps businesses are still catching up with the rapid advances in technology

To close out this podcast, this cloud cast podcast provides a well detailed explanation on how object storage works, why it is important, and what benefits it gives to both start-up businesses, and enterprises. I understand why some business won’t make a full migration to the cloud. Storing data on premises means you won’t need to rely on other enterprises to protect yours. If I were to create a start up, I would establish a cloud service, and then find method of implementing a hybrid service once the business takes off.

That’s all for now, talk to you soon, and thank you. Podcast out.

References:

CALDER, A. (2021). ABOUT RANSOMWARE. In The Ransomware Threat Landscape: Prepare for, recognise and survive ransomware attacks (pp. 15–26). IT Governance Publishing.

My Cloud Computing Reflections

Week 4: Etsy's cloud migration

Transcript:

Welcome to my cloud computing reflections. My name is Charles Roberts. This is the fourth week where I listen to a new podcast and go over what new topics I learned, how it challenges my initial thoughts or beliefs, and how it applies to my personal or professional life.

This week, I listened to the cloud cast titled etsy’s big data collection with special guest Kevin Mchale. Kevin is the senior staff engineer at etsy. In this podcast, Kevin discusses the benefits, risks, and lessons learned from migrating to the cloud. According to Mchale, it took approximately a year and a half to migrate the Big Data from in house to Google Cloud.

 Mchale says he was still surprised at how expensive the transition was. The expenses didn’t derive from the cloud services themselves; it derives from the new managements that Mchale’s team underestimated. Cloud migration is more than just copy and pasting files and data to a new storage unit. The business subscribes to an outer source and must abide to the conditions or restrictions. I use git hub, for example, which allows me to retrieve code from any computer I have. However, if I don’t save or upload new changes to the code properly, that could mean a major loss in progress and unnecessary extended work time.

A second lesson learned by McHale is communications between Google’s cloud support, Etsy’s business staff, and his team members. The migration was estimated to take only 6 months, but they spent just as much time optimizing and educating the staff on maintaining the cloud service. The website needs to retrieve this data and run an algorithm that displays the items that aligns with what the clients favors. Etsy is popular for its custom arts and crafts products. According to CNNMoney, this helped Etsy be valued at around 3 billion dollars back in 2015. One day I wanted a custom doll to gift to my friend’s newborn and decided to look up custom doll makers on Etsy. I was given the choice of over 1000 different custom doll designers, but I would only get to see at least 10. All this competition is data that must be stored and retrieved within a database.

To close out this podcast, this cloud cast podcast provides very informative insights on cloud migration for large businesses. Amazon and Etsy are both online resellers, but Amazon have built their own cloud service of AWS while Etsy outsources to Google Cloud. I’m now more certain that other online shopping platform, like Zavvi and Wayfair, are following the same steps as Etsy did if they haven’t already.

That’s all for now, talk to you soon, and thank you. Podcast out.

References

CNNMoney (2015) ‘Etsy now worth over $3 billion. Stock jumps 88% after IPO’, Stockswatch,

My Cloud Computing Reflections

Week 3: Enterprise Cloud Distribution

Transcript:

Welcome to my cloud computing reflections. My name is Charles Roberts. This is the third week where I listen to a new podcast and go over what new topics I learned, how it challenges my initial thoughts or beliefs, and how it applies to my personal or professional life.

This week, I listened to episode 129 of Cloud cast titled Cloud Chaos, Hyperconvergence, and commoditization with special guests Greg Knieriemen and Stu Miniman. In this podcast, Greg and Stu discuss how big computer distributors, such as Dell and IBM, are needing to branch off from their hardware distribution to develop their custom cloud services. Corporation like Microsoft prefer to keep all departments under one brand or infrastructure. They also state how many non tech corporations utilize the same cloud services for their IT infrastructure. There was plenty discussed in this podcast, and I learned valuable information that I had not considered until this week.

According to Greg and Stu, the top 50 corporations in the US are either using OpenStack or are researching the use of OpenStack. OpenStack is an open-source cloud infrastructure which provides Virtual Machines and other components within an Infrastructure as a service. An article written by Avani Rampersad in 2024, proclaims that even government agencies utilize OpenStack such as NASA and France’s Interior Ministry. I honestly have never heard of OpenStack until listening to this podcast. I had just familiarized myself with AWS, and now I get to compare the two services to see which better suits my needs.

The podcast also highlighted if these major corporations would be better off if their IT infrastructures weren’t outsourced and instead self-defined. Microsoft, for example, has not had been great with providing cloud services for both enterprises and individuals. Greg and Stu say that when Bill Gates, the founder and CEO of Microsoft, is eventually gone, the company will more likely split their subsidiaries into their respected competencies. At first, I thought Microsoft would keep its current structure long after Gates leaves. While it’s mere speculation, Microsoft may need to divide subsidiaries if it means to maintain company value.

To close out this podcast, this podcast well represents what are the thoughts of professionals in cloud computing regarding the current state of IT Infrastructures in Corporations. In the future, I should familiarize myself with OpenStack since many major cooperation rely on its service. I can implement it into my resume to give me a better chance for an IT position.

That’s all for now, talk to you soon, and thank you. Podcast out.

References:

Rampersad, A. (2024, July 2). Who is using OpenStack?. OpenMetal IaaS.

My Cloud Computing Reflections

Week 2: SaaS Services

Transcript:

 Welcome to my Could Computing reflections. My name is Charles Roberts. This is the second week where I listen to a new podcast and go over what new topics I learned, how it challenges my initial thoughts or beliefs, and how it applies to my personal or professional life.

This week, I listened to episode 162 of Cloud Cast titled Building and Managing Scalable SaaS Services with special guest Manoj Chaudhary. In this podcast, Manoj discusses what he learned from his years of working in a business called Loggly. There was plenty discussed in that podcast, and I learned valuable information that I had not considered until this week.

According to Manoj, Amazon web services or AWS is what helped SaaS break into the mainstream, becoming more accessible to business and individuals. AWS is only one of many popular SaaS services. These SaaS services include GitHub, microsoft365, Zoom Dropbox, Intuit, and much more (Newcombe, 2020). I utilize some of these services for storing and retrieving documents and files across multiple computers and operating systems.

Another aspect I learned is the risks of log management. Logging makes up a portion of big data, and it requires a lot of maintenance. According to Manoj, business should prioritize building company value over logging management. Businesses, especially smaller ones, are better off automating or outsourcing log management. I experienced this for my senior design project. Dexter Manufacturing is in Albion OH and specialized in the production of vehicle axels. They called upon Trine seniors like me to work on a better method of organizing their big data to prevent the risks of scope creep.

To close out this podcast, Cloud Cast provided insightful and needed information regarding SaaS with the help of Menaj. I haven’t heard of the phrase logging management up until listening to this podcast. I always hear big data when refering to IT infrastructure, but I haven’t wondered what make up a businesses’ Big Data. Data management take a lot of understanding and education, so companies prefer to outsource it to cloud services as opposed to spending most of their revenue towards logging and data managent. With that in mind, the best career path for cloud computing would be to pursue a similar path to Menaj, that is, to start up my own Saas for businesses to outsource, and later sell the service to any corporation.

That’s all for now, talk to you soon, and thank you. Podcast out.

My Could Computing Reflections

Week 1: Introduction

Transcript

Welcome to my Could Computing reflections. My name is Charles Roberts. For about the next 8 weeks, I’ll be uploading podcasts like this to reflect upon what I learned from other podcasts such as cloud cast and cloud cast basics. I will be covering what new topics I learned, how it challenges my initial thoughts or beliefs, and how it applies to my personal or professional life.

This week, I listened to the introduction to cloud cast basics, by Aaron Delp and Brian Gracely. This podcast is dedicated for those who are unfamiliar with cloud computing and how it works. It was designed with people such as network admin coworkers and bosses in mind. Aaron and Brian made the promise that each episode will have three major components, what a certain terminology is, why we should care, and how it creates business value. Although the introduction is only 5 minutes long, I still learned some valuable interesting information.

Cloud Cast Basics briefly stated that Amazon Web services features over 180 different services. These services include Elastic Cloud Compute  EC2, Relational Database Services RDS, Simple Storage Service S3, and much more. In 2016 Steven C. Dudash wrote a report titled department of defense and cloud computing. In this report he concluded that gaining access to cloud services can reduce the cost of IT infrastructure exponentially, since you only pay for what is need and scale according to growth. Since Amazon Web services is initially free, that in theory means anybody can have a piece of IT infrastructure wherever they go.

To close out this podcast, Cloud cast basics is a proper start to learning cloud computing for anyone with a hint of curiosity. It applies to not only start up business, but also enterprises and governments. I had not been involved in cloud computing back when I was studying for my bachelor’s degree. Since using cloud servers like Amazon Web Services is free, I will start utilizing these services in the future. I had an idea of my own software business where I can hire other computer programmers, but it comes with a lot of security risks and expenses. I can mitigate these risks with a cloud server where my workers can store and exchange emails, files and applications securely.

That’s all for now, talk to you soon, and thank you. Podcast out.