Google and IBM to Provide Cloud Computing to Students

John "butter/oreo" Bajana-Bacall writes to tell us that IBM and Google have decided to team up to provide cloud computing resources to participating college students. "Most of the innovation in cloud computing has been led by corporations, but industry executives and computer scientists say a shortage of skills and talent could limit future growth. 'We in academia and the government labs have not kept up with the times,' said Randal E. Bryant, dean of the computer science school at Carnegie Mellon University. 'Universities really need to get on board.' Six universities will be involved in the initiative. They are Carnegie Mellon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Maryland and the University of Washington."

Comments

I refuse to answer this...

[monkeyboythom]

on the grounds that the Rolling Stones will sue me and everyone else for the use of the word, cloud.

What if & modern computing

[Dareth]

I often wonder what form modern computing would be in today if the personal computer had not been so wide accepted. Look around you at the walls. Some of the things you see are very ubiquitous. People take electrical outlets and phone jacks for granted. It is just part of the infrastructure we are used to. Now imagine a computer port next to all the rest. All you need is simple input(keyboard,mouse) and simple output(monitor,printer) devices attached to an adapter that plugs into this outlet. That is all you would need to know about computing. Computing power would be offered by a "Computer Utility" company. They would handle all the technical details. You simply pay your bill and the "technical goodness" comes down the line.

Sure, you certainly pay thru the nose for your time slices of CPU power. But to those of us fortunate to be "Computer Wizards" who live and work at the Computer Utility, life would be grand!

Re:What if & modern computing

[Animats]

often wonder what form modern computing would be in today if the personal computer had not been so wide accepted. Look around you at the walls. Some of the things you see are very ubiquitous. People take electrical outlets and phone jacks for granted. It is just part of the infrastructure we are used to. Now imagine a computer port next to all the rest. All you need is simple input(keyboard,mouse) and simple output(monitor,printer) devices attached to an adapter that plugs into this outlet. That is all you would need to know about computing. Computing power would be offered by a "Computer Utility" company. They would handle all the technical details. You simply pay your bill and the "technical goodness" comes down the line.

That was Control Data's vision of computing, circa 1967. One supercomputer per city. There's a paper on this in, I think, AFIPS FJCC for 1967. General Electric Time Sharing Services was providing something like that by 1968. The whole "time sharing" business tanked by the end of the 1970s.

My experience with cloud computing

[Anonymous Coward]

I got very very hungry afterwards.

i keed, i keed

[User 956]

industry executives and computer scientists say a shortage of skills and talent could limit future growth

That doesn't seem to have stopped Microsoft.

Open to the public

[proidiot]

While I'm glad they're opening this up to top universities before businesses, I would think that both companies should probably open this up to open source development as well. While dealing with real hardware is ultimately a must for any serious package, it would be nice to have a way to get a package off the ground without killing local resources (not to mention potential advantages in version control).

A Little Confused

[MrCrassic]

I am confused about the concept of cloud computing. Is it supposed to be similar to that of the famed beowulf cluster, as in making a supercomputing platform out of regular computer networks? Or does it use more powerful computers and cluster them together?

Furthermore, what would be the point of doing this exactly?

Re:Cloud computing?

[Nite_Hawk]

From wikipedia:

Cloud computing is a term used to describe applications that were developed to be rich internet applications. In the cloud computing paradigm software that is traditionally installed on personal computers is shifted or extended to be accessible via the internet. These "cloud applications" or "cloud apps" utilize massive data centers and powerful servers that host web applications and web services. They can be accessed by anyone with a suitable internet connection and a standard browser. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

That was Thomas Watson Jr's vision.

[mosel-saar-ruwer]

Originally the IBM machines were strictly lease-only [little money upfront, big money down the road].

Then sometime later they moved to the sales model [big money upfront, but little money down the road], and Thomas Watson Jr always felt that that was a disastrous mistake.

In fact, the entire industry [M$FT, Oracle, IBM, Sun, HPQ, Unisys, Google, pretty much everybody] has been working desperately for the last ten or fifteen years to get away from the sales model, and back into the rental/services model - everyone seems to agree that that's where the big $$$s lie.

Hangon...

[CRX588]

Does this "Cloud computing" require "Tags" in anyway? I mean were talking "Web 2.0" right, someone did mention this in the "Blogosphere"?!

Either way, as long as this stuff does not run on a "Hypervisor" I don't want anything to do with it!

Re:Cloud computing?

[jlarocco]

Does that really need a new buzzword? Sounds like the same old shit that people have been doing with the internet for 10 years now. At the very least, isn't that basically the definition of "Web 2.0"? What's the difference?

I was a little worried I had completely missed out on some new phenomenon, but that Wikipedia page has only been around since March. Sounds to me like Google and IBM just want to inspire "OMG!!1 We're missing out on 'cloud computing'!1" in idiot PHBs and investors.

Re:Meta question

[g0at]

What does "meta question" in your subject line mean?

-b

Re:Cloud computing?

[Kadin2048]

How is this different from the concept of SOA? "...software that is traditionally installed on personal computers is shifted or extended to be accessible via the internet". I was under the impression the idea of Grid processing was more about sharing computing tasks... I don't think there's really a difference. "Cloud computing" strikes me as basically a sexed-up name for SOA, directed towards end-users rather than corporate implementors.

That and SOA is pretty vague. I don't know where you're getting your particular definition from, but there are lots of competing ones; you can include a lot under the umbrella of "service" within "service-oriented architecture." It doesn't refer just to web services or even just to software and IT.