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Current Filter: Cloud>>>>>Opinion> To infinity... and beyond? Editorial Type: Opinion Date: 01-2015 Views: 1877 | |||
| The ongoing epic journey of the Voyager space probe has parallels with the journey we are all making toward a Cloud-oriented future, suggests Paul Hickingbotham, Group Technical Director at Hammer In September 1977 the Voyager probe was launched into space to collect data about the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and to undertake an exploration into space. It is now the farthest man-made object from Earth, at almost 19.5 billion kilometres away, and it has travelled farther than anyone, or anything, in history. For almost 37 years it has been quietly drifting through the solar system; yet last year, the Voyager made the news again because NASA announced it had finally crossed over the border of the solar system - known as the heliopause - and into interstellar, or unknown, space. The Voyager's epic journey has recently reminded me of Cloud computing's own epic expedition.
PRECIOUS DATA However, in roughly 10 years, the plutonium power sources in the Voyager will stop generating electricity, and data will no longer be sent. In fact, some capabilities of the spacecraft have already halted due to electrical power limitations. This is how the constantly evolving Cloud, on its own ground-breaking journey, evoked in my mind similarities to the Voyager. The Cloud has recently undergone a transformation in terms of how it is marketed to the masses; from its humble beginnings when its definition was still being formed, to Cloud providers now rushing to define the Cloud and its benefits to their customers in their own individual ways. Analyst firm Gartner has also described Cloud computing as being "a disruptive phenomenon, with the potential to make IT organisations more responsive than ever. Cloud computing promises economic advantages, speed, agility, flexibility, infinite elasticity and innovation," but Gartner also poses the question: "How will you phase your organisation into cloud computing?" Its ubiquitous nature is the prevailing factor, demonstrated in taglines recently attached to it such as 'any time, any device, anywhere', 'infinite', and 'borderless'. The 'borderless, infinite' connotations especially reflect the journey the Voyager is undertaking. Imagine the planets representing virtualisation in the data centre, the solar system representing the Cloud, and the edge of the solar system, which the Voyager has now entered, representing the 'borderless, infinite' Cloud. Similarly to the Voyager, our understanding of data management began with virtualisation in the data centre, which extended out into the 'solar system', or the Cloud, as the Voyager itself did. The question is - how will the Cloud adapt now that, like the Voyager, it has entered new and unexplored, 'borderless' territories? The key in the Voyager mission is the data itself - as it is with the Cloud - because without data being sent back to NASA for analysis, the Voyager probe could be anywhere in the Milky Way, and it wouldn't matter because the data would not be safely transmitted back to Earth. Also, the data transmitted needs to be reconstructed and analysed to provide worthwhile information. Similarly, data stored in the Cloud can be stored virtually anywhere - as long as it is safely transmitted back to its rightful owner in perfect condition.
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