Blogs
- Cloud Computing
1. What is cloud computing?
Simply put, cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale. You typically pay only for cloud services you use, helping you lower your operating costs, run your infrastructure more efficiently, and scale as your business needs change (Microsoft, n.d.).
2. Is cloud computing a new technology per se? In other words, what are the unique technology features of cloud computing, if any?
Cloud computing is a big shift from the traditional way businesses think about IT resources. Here are seven common reasons organizations are turning to cloud computing services: Cost, Speed, Global scale, Productivity, Performance, Reliability, Security (Microsoft, n.d.).
3. What are the three major cloud service models?
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (Paas), and software as a service (SaaS). They are sometimes called the cloud computing “stack” because they build on top of one another. Knowing what they are and how they’re different makes it easier to accomplish your business goals (Microsoft, n.d.).
4. Name at least 3 real-world domains where the application of cloud computing was (or can be) very enabling and effective.
Some of the real-world applications of cloud computing.
Online Data Storage: Cloud computing allows storing data like files, images, audios, and videos, etc on the cloud storage. The organization need not set physical storage systems to store a huge volume of business data which costs so high nowadays. As they are growing technologically, data generation is also growing with respect to time, and storing that becoming problem. In that situation, Cloud storage is providing this service to store and access data any time as per requirement.
Backup and Recovery: Cloud vendors provide security from their side by storing safe to the data as well as providing a backup facility to the data. They offer various recovery application for retrieving the lost data. In the traditional way backup of data is a very complex problem and also it is very difficult sometimes impossible to recover the lost data. But cloud computing has made backup and recovery applications very easy where there is no fear of running out of backup media or loss of data.
Bigdata Analysis: We know the volume of big data is so high where storing that in traditional data management system for an organization is impossible. But cloud computing has resolved that problem by allowing the organizations to store their large volume of data in cloud storage without worrying about physical storage. Next comes analyzing the raw data and finding out insights or useful information from it is a big challenge as it requires high-quality tools for data analytics. Cloud computing provides the biggest facility to organizations in terms of storing and analyzing big data.(Geeks For Geeks, 2022)
5. What is the economic/business model of cloud computing?
Cloud computing allows businesses to scale their operations up or down as needed, reducing the need for expensive hardware upgrades or investments in new equipment. Cloud computing also eliminates the need for on-site maintenance and support, as all software and hardware is managed by the cloud provider. This can lead to significant cost savings for businesses, as they no longer need to hire dedicated IT staff or invest in expensive software licenses (Asia Business Outlook Team, n.d.).
References:
- Microsoft. What is Cloud Computing. (n.d.).
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-cloud-computing#:~:text=Simply%20put%2C%20cloud%20computing%20is,resources%2C%20and%20economies%20of%20scale
- Geeks For Geeks. (2022, December 9). Real World Applications of Cloud Computing.
- https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/real-world-applications-of-cloud-computing/
- Asia Business Outlook Team. (n.d.). How Cloud Computing Can Be A Cost-Effective Solution for Businesses
- https://www.asiabusinessoutlook.com/perspective/how-cloud-computing-can-be-a-costeffective-solution-for-businesses-nwid-3032.html#:~:text=Cloud%20computing%20also%20eliminates%20the,invest%20in%20expensive%20software%20licenses
- Programming Languages
1. Why did we move from punch cards to programming languages ? What does that tell you about the purpose of programming languages?
At the start when the concept called programming started, our codes were saved on punched cards which is one of the earliest storage devices preceding floppy disks, magnetic tape and the hard drives. (IBM, The IBM Punched Card, para. 2). So why did we create programming languages? We created programming languages to communicate instructions to a computer. (Wikipedia, History of Programming Languages, para. 8).
2. There are hundreds of different programming languages out there. Why do you think we need so many?
Javascript, Python, C++, C#, C and others. There are many programming languages because they each have different purposes. Some are built to solve other programming language’s problems.
3. What are some drawbacks of a programming language you use? How would you like it to be different? Think of specific examples.
I mostly use Javascript as my everyday programming language. With its latest updates ES15, I believe most of its drawbacks are fixed as I don’t have any issues with it.
3. If you were going to create a new programming language, how would you start? What do you need to define?
I believe that finding an equality between performance and usability would be the best way to create a new programming language. Because, I believe that even though the computer programmes are getting more usable it gets slower over time. If I were to make a new programming language, I won’t sacrifice it’s speed over performance.
References:
- IBM. The IBM Punched Card
- https://www.ibm.com/history/punched-card#:~:text=The%20IBM%20card%20was%20replaced,cards%20needed%20to%20process%20data
- Wikipedia, History of Programming Languages
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_programming_languages
- Two major computer security incidents that have happened in Qatar
1. Qatar National Bank Data Breach in 2016
The Turkish far-right group known as Bozkurt Hackers, according to Kaspersky Lab, has hacked Qatar National Bank’s database server on April 25, 2016. Resulting 1.4GB of customer database being leaked online (Jennifer, 2016).
According to Security researcher Omar Benbouazza the bank was running known vulnerable software such as Servlet 2.4, JSP and Tomcat 4.2.3. And he said that the attacker used one of the most common attacks, a SQL injection to the backend ORACLE database server, using the SQLMap tool. Thus showing that QNB had a very vulnerable backend and protection to it (Kewin, 2016).
2. Coronavirus Contact Tracing App Data Breach
Coronavirus Tracing app that pushed all the people living in Qatar had a major security flaw as it was found by Amnesty International.
Even though we don’t know if people were impacted by such a flaw as it was luckily found by Amnesty International, it would count as a one of the major incidents.
Having more than a million users downloading an app and filling out their information such as their name, qatar Id and other sensitive information, it also had a real time location tracking - meaning if anyone else had the access they could see the location of everyone with their personal information (AFP, 2020).
References:
- Jennifer, A. (2016, April 28). Hackers target Qatar National Bank
- https://www.meed.com/hackers-target-qatar-national-bank/
- Kewin, T. (2016, May 4). Qatar National Bank Hackers Threaten Data Leak From Second Bank
- https://www.securityweek.com/qatar-national-bank-hackers-could-leak-data-second-bank/
- AFP (2020, May 7). Qatar Tracing App Flaw Exposed 1 Mn Users' Data: Amnesty
- https://www.securityweek.com/qatar-tracing-app-flaw-exposed-1-mn-users-data-amnesty/
- Randy Pausch Lecture: Time Management
Randy Pausch was a Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Known for having had pancreatic cancer he became popular through his lectures.
Watching his lecture about Time Management, I was inspired by him and learned a lot about time management.
Five points he said that I liked in his talk:
- You don’t find time for important things, you make it. And you make it, by electing not to do something else.
- Find your creative time, and defend it ruthlessly. Spent it alone, maybe at home if you have to.
- Find your dead time and do stuff that you don’t need to be at your best.
- Think about best possible outcome when deciding between effective or efficient.
- Time is all we have, and you may find one day, you have less than you think
References:
- Pausch, R. (2008, February 7). Time management
- https://youtu.be/oTugjssqOT0