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O V T LT couple of

years, cloud computing

has taken the business world by storm. The idea

of storing and managing

data on virtualized serversoften

residing on the Internetisnt par-ticularly new. But thanks to ongoing

advances in IT infrastructure and farmore sophisticated applications, in-dividuals and organizations around

the world now have the ability to con-

nect to data and computing resources

anywhere and anytime.

Its a trend with enormous implica-

tions. Cloud computing provides ac-cess to large-scale remote resources

in a very efcient and quick manner,

explains Karsten Schwan, director of

the Center for Experimental Researchin Computing Systems at Georgia

Tech University. It has the potential

to dramatically change business mod-

els and the way people interact withone another.

Nowhere is this more obvious than

in developing nations, where the abil-

ity to access resources has often beenlimited and building out a robust

IT infrastructure can be daunting.The emergence of cloud computingchanges the stakes for entrepreneurs,

small and large businesses, research-

ers, and governments. It has thepotential to level the playing eld be-

cause it breaks down barriers to en-

try, says Steve Bratt, CEO of the non-prot World Wide Web Foundation.

To be sure, cloud computing offers

an opportunity to create entirely new

types of businessesand businessmodelsthat couldnt have been

imagined or werent possible only a

few years ago. In addition, they openup new marketsincluding vast num-

bers of mobile phone usersthat pre-

viously werent reachable. However,

at the same time, cloud computingpresents entirely new challenges and

obstacles, particularly in regions cop-

ing with limited technical expertise,bandwidth, and IT resources.

a Prdg sft?

Although cloud computing has be-

come something of a buzzword over

the last couple of years, its unwise todismiss it as the latest overhyped tech

trend. It has the potential to create a

paradigm shift in the way IT resourcesare used and distributed, says P.K.

Sinha, chief coordinator for research

and development at the Center for De-

velopment of Advanced Computing atPune University in India.

Clouds provide a powerfuland

often otherwise unattainableIT in-frastructure at a modest cost. In addi-

tion, they free individuals and small

businesses from worries about quickobsolescence and a lack of exibility.

Yet, at the same time, large organiza-

tions can consolidate their IT infra-structure across distributed locations,

Sinha points out. Even government

entities can benet by enabling ser-

vices to consumers on a shared basis.In some cases, cloud-based comput-

ing grids enable research that simply

wasnt possible in the past.These days, clouds enable a wide

range of services. Already, several in-

dustry behemothsincluding Ama-zon, Google, and Microsofthave

introduced cloud-based commercial

services. In addition, IBM has estab-lished cloud computing centers in

Beijing, China; Bangalore, India; Ha-

noi, Vietnam; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and

Seoul, South Korea.

ld ptg dDevelpg ntFor a growing number of organizations worldwide, cloud computingoffers a quick and affordable way to tap into IT infrastructure as anInternet service. But obstacles and challenges remain.

Society|DOI:10.1145/1735223.1735232 SamuelGreengard

i Key, Wlfred mwr, left, creted Pe pplct g ly le Peltr d steve mtd de ud pplct fr Jv-ebled ble pe.

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more than they get from typical jobs

in a refugee camp.

Even more remarkable is howclouds connect developers all over

the world to technology and markets

that would have been entirely outof bounds in the past. The New York

Times recently reported that Wilfred

Mworia, a 22-year-old developer in

Nairobi, Kenya, built an iPhone appusing only an online iPhone simula-

tor (iPhone service isnt available in

Kenya), which he can sell all over theworld.

As geography becomes irrelevant,

further changes will occur, Baryamu-reeba notes. In fact, both developed

and developing nations will benet

through cloud-based software as aservice model. A software product

developed in the USA can be extend-

ed and supported by a developer in

another place, such as Uganda, hesays. And software can be purchased

at a lower cost by eliminating compo-

nents that are not relevant to a devel-oping countrys needs.

Weterg ge

What makes cloud computing so pow-

erful is that it is based on a system of

modularity. The use of virtualizationand a cloud platform allows organiza-

tions to break down services and sys-

tems into smaller components, whichcan function separately or across a

widely distributed network. Servers

can be located almost anywhere and

interfaces can be changed and cus-

For a growing number of organiza-tions worldwide, its a quick and af-

fordable way to tap into infrastructure

as an Internet service. In addition, a

growing array of enterprise software vendors, including Salesforce.com

and Freshbooks.com, exclusively pro-

vide cloud-based services for custom-

ers. And Apple and Blackberry makeit increasingly simple to store data

in the cloud and sync it with multipledevices, including computers and

smartphones.

But the story doesnt end there.In India, Africa, and South America,

cloud computing allows organiza-

tions to connect and collaborate

through online applications such asGoogle Docs. Many people, including

college graduates, do not have access

to the latest hardware and software,says Venansius Barya Baryamureeba,

dean for the Department of Comput-

ing and IT at Makerere University inKampala, Uganda. Whats more, the

ability to dial into cloud resources al-

lows organizations lacking an inter-nal IT infrastructure to scale up and

compete more effectively.

In fact, the possibilities are lim-

ited only by creativity. In the south-ern Sahara region of Sahel, for exam-

ple, farmers now use a cloud-based

trading system that disseminatesinformation about planting sched-

ules, crop status, harvesting times,

and market prices through mobilephones. In India, the Apparel Export

Promotion Council has developed a

cloud platform that provides comput-ing services and enterprise software

to more than 11,000 of its members

most of whom lack the capital and

resources to build their own IT infra-structure.

Some cloud initiatives link nations

and people in entirely new ways. Forexample, U.S.-based CrowdFlower has

introduced a cloud labor service that

connects organizations searching fortemporary workers to refugees in Ke-

nya. The iPhone app helps a business

outsource a basic task, such as nd-ing phone numbers for marketing de-

partments at various companies and

entering them into a spreadsheet. So

far, Kenyan workers have completedmore than 158,000 unique tasks.

These individuals earn as much as

U.S. $28 per week, about eight times

Milestones

CS AwardsMary Jane rwin an othermembers of the C communitywere recently honore fortheir research contributions.

ahna LuRR

CMs Council on Women inComputing has name MaryJane rwin, the van PughProfessor of Computer cienceof Pennsylvania tate University,the 20102011 thena Lecturerfor her outstaning researchcontributions to computer-aieesign, computer arithmetic,an computer architecture. Theawar, which celebrates womenresearchers who have maefunamental contributions tocomputer science, inclues a

$10,000 honorium, provie byGoogle nc.

na 2010 mmBRs

The National caemy ofngineering has electe 13new members in the sectionof computer science anengineering. They are: nreiBroer, Yahoo!; rene Greif,BM; Bill Gropp, University ofllinois at Urbana-Champaign;Laura aas, BM; Mike Joran,University of California atBerkeley; Brewster Kahle,nternet rchive; Tom Mitchell,

Carnegie Mellon University;N.. Narayana Murthy, nfosys;Larry Peterson, PrincetonUniversity; Ben hneierman,University of Marylan; anMark Wegman, BM.

2010 sLoan RsaRhLLoWshiPsixteen computer scientistswere aware two-year loanesearch Fellowships.Theyare: davi . Binel, CornellUniversity; davi M. Blei,Princeton University; Luis Ceze,University of Washington;

Constantinos daskalakis, MT;Thomas L. Grifths, Universityof California, Berkeley; itanGrinspun, Columbia University;Jason . ong, Carnegie MellonUniversity; Karrie Karahalios,University of llinois at Urbana-Champaign; Jonathan Kelner,MT; C. Karen Liu, Georgia Tech;upak Majumar, University ofCalifornia, Los ngeles; minaberi, tanfor University;Ben Taskar, University ofPennsylvania; Brent Waters,University of Texas, ustin;Nickolai Zelovich, MT;

an Li Zhang, Universityof Wisconsin, Maison.

ld cptgcld levelte plyg eld,y Wrld Wde

Web dtsteve Brtt,becet brek dwbrrer t etry.

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news

obin Milner, a Britishcomputer scientist who wonthe CM .M. Turing war in1991, ie on March 20th, at

the age of 76. Milners majoraccomplishments inclueeveloping LCF (Logic forComputable Functions), aninteractive automate theoremprover, in the early 1970s;creating ML, a general-purposefunctional programminglanguage in the late 1970s;an evising the Calculusof Communicating ystems(CC), a framework foranalyzing concurrent systems,in 1980.

Milners career incluebeing a programmer at

Ferranti, a now-efunctBritish electronics company;

working in the rtificialntelligence laboratory attanfor University; leaingthe epartment of computer

science at the University ofinburgh for more than 20years; an being a professor atCambrige University an hea

of its computer laboratory.is honors inclue

being name a Fellow ofCM an the oyal ociety ofLonon, a Foreign memberof the caemie Francaisee ciences, an a Foreignssociate of the Nationalcaemy of ngineering.

t the time of his eath,Milner was working onbigraphs, a formalism forubiquitous computing systems.n an interview with icharMorris, which was publishe atsimple-talk.com last January,

Milner iscusse his bigraphsresearch, saying, m working

on theoretical moels that aimto give us the ability to engineeran analyze ubiquitous systemsmore sounly than has often

been the case for present-aysoftware. woul early loveto follow this kin of workthrough to the front line ofesign an experience, but ont think ll be aroun forlong enough. m making upfor it by listening an talking tothose who will be!

Communications willpresent more on the careeran accomplishments ofobin Milner in the Juneissue. t press time, an onlinememorial for Milner ha beenestablishe at http://lifestran.

net/robin_milner. Jack Rosenberger

tomized on the y. These services and

software are only as far away as an In-

ternet or mobile phone connection.

Nevertheless, challenges and prob-lems remain. One of the biggest, Geor-

gia Techs Schwan says, is the lack of

connectivity and adequate bandwidthin many parts of the worldparticu-

larly where dialup networks persist.Larger data sets require more band-

width than many locations provide.

Its not practical to constantly upload

and download all the data. In someinstances the technology isnt com-

pletely adequate, even in the U.S. and

Europe, to enable large data transfers

between a companys own infrastruc-ture and the public cloud.

Another problem is the depend-

ability of local power supplies. In

many developing nations, electricityunpredictably switches on and off

and the ability to connect to a remotedata center can be dicey. An organiza-

tions IT infrastructure may become

inaccessible for some time or data sit-ting in the cloud could be lost, says

Gautam Shroff, vice president at Tata

Consultancy Services Ltd. in Delhi, In-

dia. Finally, as with any shared cloudenvironment, cloud providers and us-

ers must address backup, privacy, and

security issues.

Nevertheless, cloud computing ispoised to take off over the months and

years ahead. Baryamureeba believesthat cloudsand particularly mobile

platforms connecting to themarea game-changing technology. Theyextend computing technology into

remote areas and provide opportuni-

ties for health care, education, andeconomic development. Meanwhile,

researchers gain access to the same

high-performance computing envi-ronments as their colleagues in de-

veloped nations, and they can be just

as competitive and productive, says

Baryamureeba.Make no mistake, cloud comput-

ing is here to stay. In India, for ex-ample, cloud computing is projected

to grow from a $50 million industry in

2009 to a $15 billion industry by 2013.

Other parts of the world are follow-

ing the same growth trajectory. Itsa catalyst, observes Bratt of World

Wide Web Foundation, for a wave of

innovation and change in developingnations.

Further Reading

Fingar, P.Dot.Cloud: The 21st Century Business

Platform, Meghan-Kiffer Press, Tampa, FL,

2009.

Morton, G. and Alford, T.

The economics of cloud computing

analyzed, October 26, 2009. http://govcloud.

ulitzer.com/node/1147473

Werth, C.

umber crunching made easy, Newsweek,

May 2, 2009.

Subramanian, K.

Cloud computing and developing countries

part 1, September 24, 2008. http://www.

cloudave.com/link/Cloud-Computing-and-

Developing-Countries--Part-1

Subramanian, K.

Cloud computing and developing countries

part 2, September 24, 2008. http://www.

cloudave.com/link/Cloud-Computing-and-

Developing-Countries--Part-2

Samuel Greengard is a ath ad jaist based iWest li, or. ir Kshetri, uivesity f nth caia atgeesb, tibted t the devepet f this atie.

2010 cm 0001-0782/10/0500 $10.00

i id, cldcptg prjected tgrw fr

$50 lldtry 2009t $15 blldtry by 2013.

Obituary

Robin Milner, Turing Award Winner, Dies at 76

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