In like a lion, out like a lamb . . . |
So this is the "In like a lion, out like a lamb" month. We'll see. What we don't have to wait and see is, of course, the latest news from IT. Every month there's more information about new smartphones and tablet computers. The past few weeks have really commented on HPs (Hewlett Packards) entry into this world. The industry pretty much called Palm out in this area. Their Pre smartphone had a terrific operating system (webOS) but word said that the physical phone was bad. Well, HP bought them out. Has fixed the physical problems with Pre3, and added a tablet system (TouchPad) and another smartphone (Veer) both to come out later this year. Hmmm.
It's kinda like this all over IT. Remember, IT kept going through the bad years (that's what I call the past two or three) and new products keep showing up. It's great!!
Reminder: CSTA is March 2/3, UITJ is March 3.
Here's the schedule or you can view the complete schedule on our Website:
CSTA Web sessions:
March 2, 3
April 13-14
May 25-26
July 6-7
Aug. 17-18
Sept. 21-22
Nov. 2-3
Dec. 7-8
UITJ (Understanding IT Jobs) Web sessions:
March 3
May 26
Aug. 18
Nov. 3
TR Web sessions:
May 4
Aug. 3
Nov. 16
Keep in touch - I love hearing from you - and keep up with technology!
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Content Delivery Systems
Lots and lots! Speeds are up, of course; 64-bit processors are common; and The concept of "content delivery" is simple. It's delivering information to users. As usual, it's the details that add the complexity. Who gets the information? What format is it in? Where is the information coming from, and where is it going? Why is the content being delivered to various people? And when is it being sent? Received?
Who?
While the basic answer to "who" is customers or subscribers, this really is a matter of security. All security functions come into play – identity management, authentication, encryption, etc. This can affect other choices made in setting up the system. For example, security is harder with P2P networking than client/server (see Where?).
What?
This refers to the format of the information, and a content delivery system handles not just text and graphics, but also audio and video. The system must also handle a variety of devices. Some customers might be on laptops, others are on smartphones. 11-inch screen, 3.2-inch screen. Hmmm. Finally, is the information delivered through downloads or streams. We're all used to downloads, but streaming is a central part of many content delivery systems. Multimedia streaming is most common with movies, TV, etc. Video and sound are sent in compressed form over the Internet and the information is displayed as the images arrive. This means the user does not have to wait for the entire file to be downloaded. This requires a program called a player to de-compress the data. Players can be downloaded separately, or are part of browsers. Streaming information works well with P2P networks (see Where?).
Where?
The first answer to Where? is over the internet. A CDN (Content Delivery Network) always uses the internet as its base. There are many different CDNs and companies can build their own or use commercial systems such as Limewire, BitTorrent, Limelight and CloudFront. Information can come from anywhere, but most of the time it's going to come from a server, and client/server technology is the most common technology. Servers throughout the network have access to information which can then be distributed. Limelight and CloudFront are client/server networks.
Another way of setting up a CDN is P2P (Peer to Peer) technology, and Limewire and BitTorrent are P2P networks. In these networks all the computers act as peers and each computer can accept and send information to every other computer in the network. P2P claims low cost and efficient distribution and works best when one has to distribute very popular information, e.g., the current episode of a popular TV show. As more and more people download this show, the cost of transit fees drops.
Why?
This is the easiest of all – because people want/need information.
When?
This one's easy too, but can be complex to implement. Is the content delivered on-demand, or at a scheduled time, or when something happens? Delivering a TV show is certainly on-demand, whenever the user chooses. Delivering the latest issue of a newsletter is usually scheduled. Delivering a blog depends on when the blogger inputs his/her information; delivering news occurs when the a news flash is posted.
More and more of us are getting more and of the information we need from the Internet. Do you still read a paper newspaper? Or, do you get your news from TV and the Internet? Even if you do read printed news, have you gone to the internet and googled (or binged) to see what just happened in, e.g., Egypt?
Do you get online bills? So you can make online payments? Content delivery is absolutely an important topic.
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1. We all store data – what's the total accumulation?
2. What was the hottest item at last month's CES (Consumer Electronics Show)?
3. Which of the following smartphone operating systems is losing market share?
Andriod
iOS
MeeGo
Symbian
WebOS
4. What major chip release was flawed?
5. Which of the following does not belong?
Boa Constrictor
Frog
Python
Toad
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I found a really good summary of pay for development skills (from a Dice survey, Aug-Nov, 2010). I especially like this survey as it lists a skill you might not have heard of. I'm referring to Apex, the programming language used with Salesforce.com. The language is easy to learn with a background in either Java or C# and still new enough to be rare. The average salaries for Apex professionals is $95,192.
The popularity of Apex reflects the growth of the cloud and SaaS (Software as a Service). Salesforce offers their application on a subscription basis. Customers sign up and use the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software on-demand. A company might purchase a dozen subscriptions – which means everyone in the company can use the application, just no more than 12 at any one time. It's a cost effective way of purchasing software. Purchased software, whether it's to bring it in-house or subscribe to it, has one problem. It's never exactly what you want. Customers always want an additional report, or a new screen for a new query. Salesforce provides a development environment so companies can do their own customization, and the language they use is Apex. Customers can even develop complete applications if they choose, and market these new products which run in the Salesforce cloud.
Amazon and Google also offer PaaS (Platform as a Service) for development in the cloud. If you choose Google as your PaaS provider your applications must run in Google's cloud. Amazon's PaaS uses standard development tools so the applications developed there can run anywhere. I can't say it too many times – there's always something new. Check out the rest of the highly paid development skills in my Blog.
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Data Center
We toss the term "data center" around with everyone familiar with the closed room with lots of hardware, a few technical support people around, and a really cold temperature! But data centers are undergoing transformation and have lots of options now. We'll look at it next month.
data center The hardware, software, and personnel used to support the company's data processing activity. Also called computer center, computer room.
cloud storage Storage technology. Data is stored on multiple virtual servers, generally hosted by third parties, rather than being hosted on dedicated servers. Many vendors are offering cloud storage, including IBM, Amazon, EMC, HP, Nirvanix, and Google.
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) IT terminology used with cloud computing. Refers to building or using a data center in the cloud. A service vendor provides the hardware (computers, storage devices, network equipment) and the software (operating systems, virtualization software, network management systems, security, etc.) and companies pay for both based on actual use. This is also referred to as utility computing.
Infrastructure Infrastructure refers to the connections between the parts of a system. System infrastructure is a combination of hardware (the physical infrastructure that is comprised of cables and equipment), and software (the middleware and software tools). Another way of looking at it is by comparison. The infrastructure of a city is how you get around the city – the roads, subways, bridges, etc. The infrastructure of a computer system is how data gets around the system – the hardware and the software.
Portable data center Hardware configuration. A portable data center is a pre-configured building block, sometimes called a pod, which includes servers, storage arrays and software. A complete data center can be built by assembling as many pods as needed. The pods can be increased or decreased to react to changes in the corporate picture or as new technology and products come from IT.
virtualization Systems technology. Pooling together resources throughout the entire enterprise into a single unit that can be managed from a single point. This allows resources to be assigned to a user only as needed, and returned to the pool when free. The resources most commonly affected are storage and servers. Disk Virtualization software manages many physical disks as a single unit. This allows devices to be added without shutting down the system, handles disks from different vendors that have different sizes, speeds, and vendors, and provides the most efficient use of the physical resources by creating virtual devices, e.g. if a system needs more storage, unused space from another disk can be used. SANs (Storage Area Networks) provide storage virtualization. Server Virtualization software builds a pool of servers that can be allocated to tasks, applications, databases, or the Internet as needed. Virtualization software defines virtual machines which allow multiple operating systems to run in one physical machine. This increases the flexibility of the total enterprise.
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1. Scientists calculate total stored data is over 295 exabytes. An Exabyte is a billion billion bytes. Hard to picture, but that's still less than 1% of the information stored in all the DNA molecules of a human being.
2. Tablet computers – by far! Over 100 tablets were on display.
3. There are two answers to this one – both Symbian (d) and MeeGo (c) are going out of business. Nokia was the main vendor supporting Symbian, and it's moving to Windows 7. Only one phone running MeeGo is planned for future release.
4. One of Intel's Sandy Bridge chipsets was flawed – there was a problem in one of the chips. Intel is already shipping again. The main point, however, is that errors happen, even by strong companies and on major releases.
5. (b) Frog does not belong – at least as far as I know. The rest are all products used in application development. Boa Constrictor is a development tool for Python development (a programming language), and there are several versions of Toad – a database development tool.
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