Rightly they say “The future is cloud” … and now we are seeing that everyone is using someway part or full of “Cloud Computing”. As you can find the detailed reading on Cloud Computing in another post, hence I am trying to give some more thoughts around one of the vendor service offerings on Cloud Computing from Amazon. They have bundled their cloud computing services under ‘Amazon Web Services’ (AWS).

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer ‘cloud computing’ based company providing different kinds of remote computing services over the web. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage service (S3), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Elastic MapReduce are to name few of them. Let’s have a quick overview on what these services are all about:

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2):

It provides resizable computing resources, all available in the cloud. By subscribing to Elastic Compute Cloud a user can create a virtual machine (an instance), which is nothing but an outline of a machine.

You can configure the instance based on the Operating system, applications, libraries, data, security and network access, etc you want to use.

The advantages:

• Elastic: The capacity of the server instance can be increased or decreased with in no time and you have the liberty to create as many instances as you want at the same time.
• Complete Control: You will have root access of the instances and have full control over it.
• Secure and Reliable: This service runs on a highly reliable and secured computing environment. Web Service interfaces are available to configure firewall settings.
• Economical: In line with advantages of cloud computing, for EC2 also you pay for only what you use and the kind of instance you create.

The Pricing:

The pricing depends on the time of usage and the kind of instance created.  Let’s see how:

• On-Demand Instance: The pricing for this instance is based on per instance-hour consumed, starting from the time when instance is launched until it is terminated.
• Reserved Instances: Reserved Instances can be purchased for the period of 1-3 years and pay a non-refundable fee only once. You get a discount on the usage charge i.e. the rate applicable when the instance is running.
• Spot Instances: Spot instances are the unused EC2 capacity whose charge is decided on the supply of and demand for Spot Instances.

The cloud computing area is still under the evolution and the changing scenario is very dynamic, so watch out for the happenings around this. I will keep you posted on that, so keep updating!

Some Hot Technology trends of 2010

As the economy is recovering, technology holds the key for business expansion. In these days it is difficult to predict future as market economy is volatile, consumer demand is erratic and unpredictable while innovation is reaching new heights.

Technology today will touch your lives digitally some way or the other tomorrow.

Here is just a sneak peek into some tech trends that is expected to create an upheaval in the last year of the first decade of the 21^st century.

Semantic Web

In no time you will find an extension of WWW in the form of Semantic Web. The obvious question that is making rounds is what is semantic web? Internet with a mind of its own is Semantic web. For example if you wish to buy a smart phone, all you do now is Google  your search and you are given top 10 or 20 products with the reviews, price comparisons and flipsides. It is only after reading them that you reach a decision. But with semantic web, the best deal will be presented in front of you by finding and combining data. To achieve this, Metadata will be used and soon tools will be available that will transform the Web into indexed database. The latest buzzwords in the world of semantic web today is Resource Description Format (RDF), data interchange formats such as XML, RDF, Turtle and RDF schema coupled with Web Ontology language. So, World Wide Web will soon take over your life completely.

Cloud Computing

Soon there will be a paradigm shift for business houses as Cloud Computing will rule as the most efficient IT model in the business sector. Computing resources will no longer be in-house; instead it will be used on demand enabling businesses to be more agile and flexible. Businesses will be benefitted as the cost will be greatly reduced. Comanies like Amazon, Microsoft, IBM are all putting their strenths to encash this emerging area. Check out for Microsoft’s Azure Cloud computing services to taste this concept.

4G phone

There is writing on the wall that mobile technology is geared up for many innovations in the coming days. The word G holds special significance in the world of communication.  From 2G in the 90’s where a switch to text messaging and digital format is made to 3G ushering a new wave of faster communication and transmission of data, innovation will not get stopped here. People today are at the threshold of 4G and 2010 will see lot many launches of 4G phones worldwide and you can expect much enhanced versions from current say Apple 3GS.

3D television

Interesting changes will soon catch your attention even when you sit in front of the idiot box. The paramount question is how? Well, did you watch James Cameron’s latest magnanimous $300 billion budget movie Avatar? Yes, I am talking about wearing goggles and feeling the depth of the movie in the Cineplex. Whether Yes or No, don’t get surprised if you soon find that television landscape is walking towards a path of change and soon there will be launch of 3D televisions and you get option of depth as well to choose.

Mobile Banking

The entire financial gamut is looking forward for a change in the coming year. The reason is simple. With advancement in mobile technology, banking is expected to reach out to the masses from depositing funds in the account to creating a fixed deposit through just few text messages.

Augmented Reality

It is the new age reality and tomorrow will be better viewed, seen and heard with Augmented Reality. Soon you will have a device powered by AR that will take a snapshot of the person you are talking to, will process the image and present you with all information by checking out profiles at LinkedIn or Facebook. A huge potential is just waiting to herald a new change.

Enterprise social networking

Tomorrow’s business models will be largely dominated by collaboration. The way business is conducted will undergo a dramatic change soon. Earlier e-mail paved a new era and tomorrow enterprise version of Facebook, Wikis and Twitter will be the competitive method of communication. Business deals will get closed faster, decision making process will be accelerated, consumers will receive quicker resolution and employees will get more empowered.

Social gaming

Don’t you hear too often these days that your friend, colleague or brother has recently bought half a dozen chickens, two tractors and some cows? Yes, am speaking of Farmville by Zynga that has driven a large crowd to Facebook. Its not only Farmville, large section is also hooked on Mafia Wars. You will be also be amazed to know that by the last quarter of 2009, Second Life, another popular social gaming has almost 16 million users. Whether you a mingler or loner, social gaming is the best way to stay connected and social gaming is here to stay and more changes are on its way.

So, overall it will be an exciting year ahead in 2010 and we will revisit the Hot Technology Trends of 2010 to validate how much and how many of such trends can really create an impact to the technology domain.

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