When Larry Page and Sergey Brin start piece of work on a project called BackRub , they in all probability did n’t envision the tremendous corp that would develop out of their early attempt . This project evolved intoGoogle , a juggernaut of a company that competes on a global scale of measurement with other mega corporations . While the company has Cartesian product vagabond from Web - based e - ring armor to collaborative office applications , its corporate missionary work has remained the same . Google intends " to organize the universe ’s entropy and make it universally accessible and useful " [ root : Google ] .
Google ’s hunting engineis the oldest and likely most notable creature in the troupe ’s arsenal . But the engineers at Google view get up the mankind ’s information as a chore too complex for just a search engine . The troupe designs tools and table service that refer to its mission , sometimes in way that are n’t obvious at first glance . One major focus for the company is cloud computing .
Google is n’t alone in offering cloud computer science services . Companies like Apple and Microsoft provide merchandise that either directly need swarm computing services or swear on them in some way . Amazon , the on-line retail behemoth , has a thriving cloud storage clientele . That does n’t mean Amazon has a storage warehouse fill with fluffy , white-hot clouds . It mean the party lease out store space within its monolithic information centre . If you are running a company that want to offer a Web site or service to customers , you may regard using a society like Amazon to host your datum .
Google also has a repute for build enormous data point centers . In The Dalles , Ore. , Google has a information center build next to the Columbia River . Each building in this data centre is about the size of a football field of study . The locating has many features that make it attractive for a data center : It ’s near hydroelectric dams , which make major power approachable and sparing . It ’s also in an arena with a fiber - oculus meshing , which allows for lightning - fast data transmissions [ source : Markoff and Hansell ] .
These huge facilities are necessary for Google to bear out its corporate mission . Not only must the companionship hunting and index the worldly concern ’s information on the Web but it also has to put up the top executive for a growing internet of cloud computing service . Now , let ’s take a look at exactly what swarm computer science means .
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computingis a pop bombination term in engineering science circles . The phrase has a vague sound to it . What incisively is cloud computing ?
At its most canonic level , cloud computing is a model for outside calculator admission . The idea is unproblematic : You use your computer and anInternetconnection to make contact with a remote server . This server , which is really just a figurer , go applications using its hardware . You ’re able-bodied to influence the software by executing commands through a Web internet browser or other user interface . But the remote waiter is doing all the heavy lifting .
Why would you desire to use a cloud computer science organisation ? One ground is that it have you access diligence your own computer might not be capable to execute . Your computer only has to operate a Web web browser or unproblematic user interface . In most cloud computer science applications , this client - side program station minimal demands on your car ’s resources . That means you could take vantage of a variety of curriculum and service without have to continually indue in the fastest computers . Since the swarm computing service is handle all the processor work , you just need a machine capable of connecting to the Internet .
Another major merchandising gunpoint for cloud computer science services is that they allow you to get at your data point on a variety of devices no matter where you are . If you bank on your own computer to accomplish programs , you ’re limited to that motorcar unless you make special arrangements . You may have to e - mail a file cabinet to yourself so that you may access it on another gadget . You may have to set up a nursing home connection to tolerate filing cabinet transferee between machines . And there ’s the endangerment that you ’ll duplicate the data file in the physical process , which can be confusing further down the route – which filing cabinet is the real one ? Cloud computing services salt away your selective information on remote host . you could log into the cloud computing table service using your account login and password . You do n’t have to apply the same information processing system or equipment each fourth dimension .
Google is in a especially good military position when it comes to swarm computing . It ’s a large , stable company , which mean customer can be reasonably confident that their services and data wo n’t melt overnight . Its leading squad includes locomotive engineer who lie with how to create solutions for electronic computer centers . And the company has manifest that its philosophy of using cheap equipment rather than cutting - edge machines crop .
Next , we ’ll take a closer look at how Google creates a swarm .
The Anatomy of a Cloud
Google’sapproach tocloud computingmay seem perplexing at first . You might think a vast corporation deserving billions of dollars would have information center of attention pack with state of the art , high - tech servers and machines that go Ping River . Would n’t Google executives want the best equipment ?
But Google ’s approach is more pragmatical . The company purchases mid - range servers for its data substance . The company has a good reason for this approach . Should something break , it ’s relatively loose and cheap to get a replacement . resort and maintenance can be huge costs for a data center – each building may domiciliate thousands of automobile . To secure service rest on-line , Google dedicates several waiter to provide the same subroutine . That way , should one waiter malfunction , another can take its stead with a minimum pause in services . It build redundancy into the organisation .
Google ’s philosophy is to keep the back end system as dim-witted as possible . As system become more complex , the opportunity for problems to rise increase . simplify a organization reduces the luck for problems even if the system itself is enormous . The Google cloud ’s foundation is theGoogle File System . This is a spread computing system that deal information request through canonical file commands like receptive , read and write .
The entire single file system consists of networks calledclusters . The Google File System relies on master server to coordinate information requests – each cluster has a single master host . When you interact with info stored on the swarm , your actions translate into datum requests . A asking may be something simple , like catch a file , or may involve more complex actions , such as formatting or write new data . Your computer acts as aclient– a simple machine that institutionalize data petition to other machines . in the end , a master waiter lease the request and commit a message to the Google car that houses the datum – Google calls these machineschunkservers . The chunkserver sends the data point right away to the guest – the entropy never passes through the master server .
Because Google stores several copy of each piece of entropy for the sake of redundancy , making changes to data in the swarm is a picayune complicated . First , your write postulation function to a superior host . The master server chooses one chunkserver storing the appropriate information to respond to your petition – this becomes the basal replication chunkserver . The passe-partout waiter tells the client the location of all replica chunkservers storing your file . When you make changes , those changes go to the first replica chunkserver to which your computer can connect . The write petition moves through the arrangement to all the replica chunkservers , include the primary replica . The primary replica makes the literal modification to the data and then sends a content to all other replica chunkservers to do the same . Once the primary replica receives confirmation that all copies of the data point have deepen , it sends a notification to the customer .
Now that we have the technical details out of the mode , let ’s take a look at some of the things you may do with the Google cloud .
Google Cloud Connect
One of the challenge of exercise with electronic document is finding a dewy-eyed elbow room to get together with other people . Using the old method acting of open up an program on yourcomputer , creating a file , save it and then send off it to someone else invites problems . First among those is that this approach generates two copy of the papers . If you make changes to your written matter while other people make change to their copies of that same file , how do you incorporate all the variety ? Which version of the file is the correct one ? What happens if someone open up an onetime copy of the file and fix changes , not knowing that a more current version of the document already be ? File direction becomes challenging .
GoogleCloud Connect approaches this job by leverage the cloud and the lotion scheduling interface ( API ) for Microsoft Office . After installing a nag - in for the Microsoft Office suite of programme , you may save file to the cloud . This mean the swarm copy of the filing cabinet becomes the master document that everyone habituate . Google Cloud Connect assigns each lodge a singular uniform resource locator . you may divvy up this URL with others to let them regard the document . If you intend someone as an editor in chief , that individual can then download the written document and spread it in Microsoft Office .
If you make changes to the document , those changes will show up for everyone else viewing it . Should other editors make changes , you ’ll see them reflected in your written matter . When multiple masses make changes to the same plane section of a document , Cloud Connect commit you the chance to opt which set of changes to keep .
So how does it work ? When you upload a text file to Google Cloud Connect , the service inserts some metadata into the file cabinet . Metadata is information about other information . In this case , the metadata identifies the Indian file so that changes will track across all copies . The back destruction is similar to the Google File System and relies on the Google Docs base . As the documents sync to the master file , Google Cloud Connect sends the update data out to all downloaded copies of the document using the metadata to guide update to the right files .
Microsoft offers its own on-line collaborationism tool phone SharePoint . But unlike Google Cloud Connect , SharePoint is n’t devoid . Businesses interested in SharePoint must purchase a license to utilise it on their computers . But since SharePoint is a Microsoft product for Microsoft Office applications , there ’s a tight integration of features that Google ca n’t oppose .
Next , we ’ll see at Google ’s Cloud Print service .
Google Cloud Print
On Aug. 10 , 2011 , IBM executive Mark Dean caused a snatch of a stir when he referred to the world being in a " post - PCera . " Dean was n’t sound out that the personal computer was dead or obsolete . But he was pointing out how people are using mobile gadget more often when they perform canonical activities traditionally done on computers . Smartphonesand tablets are pushing desktop and laptop reckoner to a support character . One of those undertaking is printing .
Traditionally , to send a mark caper to a pressman you ’d either have to plug in the printer directly to your calculator , or connect both the printing machine and your computer to a electronic web . Google Cloud Print is a service that extend the pressman ’s function to any twist that can relate to the Internet . you could be on the other side of the domain and commit a print job to the machine sit on your desk at dwelling house .
To apply Google Cloud Print , you need the chase :
When you use Google Cloud Print through an app or Web site , the print request goes through the Google host . Google rootle the asking to the appropriate printer associated with your Google account . If you record more than one printer – there ’s no demarcation to the number of printers you may connect to your account – you ’ll have to destine the political machine you want the print chore to go to . assume the respective printer is on and has an active Internet connection , newspaper publisher and ink , the print job should fulfil on the machine even if you ’re in another part of the world . you may share your printer with other people , allowing them to send you printed document through Google Cloud Print .
Because most printing machine are n’t t cloud - ready , most Google Cloud Print users will need to have a computer turn as a affair . Google Cloud Print is an extension built into the Google Chrome . browser app Google turns the setting off by default – you have to pick out to enable it . Once enabled , the serving spark a small slice of codification call a connection . The connector ’s line is to interface between the pressman and the international world . The connecter habituate your computer ’s printer software to institutionalise commands to the pressman . As of this writing , Google has connectors built for PCs and Macs and is figure out on one for Linux machine .
If you have a cloud - ready printer , you could colligate the printer to the Internet straightaway without the pauperization for a dedicated computer . You have to record the cloud printer with Google Cloud Print to take vantage of its capabilities . The big advantage of the cloud printer is that you do n’t have to keep a computer powered on , online and connected to your Google business relationship for find print task . You connect a cloud pressman to the Google Cloud Print serving by register the printer ’s unique email address with Google .
Because Google allow app and Web website developer to integrate Google Cloud Print into their product as they see set , there ’s no standard approach to executing a print job . You might see one user interface on one site and a completely different feeler on another . Also , Google Cloud Print calculate upon developer incorporating the feature into their products . Not every app or internet site will have Google Cloud Print ramp up into it , which limits its functionality . of course , Google progress the service into its own product but many people rely on services from multiple sources and may find Google Cloud Print does n’t have a wide of the mark enough adoption to meet all their want .
Google Music Cloud
Mobile access to music is n’t a novel trend . We ’ve had car radios and portable radios for decades . Then come invention like the portable cassette player , portableCDplayer andMP3 players . With each generation of product , we boom our alternative to take our music with us on the go . But each of these gadgets chip in us special access and it was n’t always easy to portion out music across multiple machine . Google ’s Music service purpose to change that .
At its most basic level , Google Musicis a cloud storage service coupled with a simple-minded euphony musician port . you could upload songs to your Google Music bill and access them with a figurer or cyberspace - capable machine using the Google Music app . Google allows you to upload up to 20,000 songs for free . Google limits the file size for an individual birdsong to 250 megabytes , which might require you to use a scurvy moment charge per unit when converting runway to digital files .
Google Music support MP3 and aac files across all platform . The Windows version of Google Music endorse wma files . Linux computers support ogg files . And while you’re able to upload FLAC data file to Google Music , Google will transcode those files into MP3 formats at 320 kbps . Because MP3 is a lossy format , this compression might have an impact on the heavy quality .
While you may log into your Google Music account from multiple computers and equipment , only one equipment can actually play music at any turn over time . Two people ca n’t listen to different equipment reach the same report at the same time . This is how Google prevents multitude from using Google Music as a way to boost piracy .
Even with Google ’s protective covering in place , the medicine industry is n’t vibrate with Google Music . Google sought out deals with the record industriousness before set in motion Google Music but did n’t make much progress . Eventually , the society decide to move onward with a beta run of Google Music without licenses . From Google ’s position , Google Music is like any other repositing machine . If you buy a birdsong , you ’re allow to channelise that Sung to an MP3 player or smartphone . You could also store that Sung on a hard drive plug into to your computer . You could even transfer it to a television game console . Google Music is like any other data storage equipment – it ’s just that this memory board twist might be hundreds of miles away from the individual who buy the song .
Google is still endeavor to make pot with track record labels . decently now , the only path to get your music onto Google ’s serving is to upload it yourself . If you have a slow connexion and a big medicine library , this could take hours . With the right licensing agreements , Google could contain a sale platform that would reserve you to buy music and mechanically store it to your Google Music explanation .
Google ’s cloud services are probable just the beginning of a full suite of production that will shift cypher away from the consumer and onto servers . As broadband penetration spreads across the globe and the focal point shimmy to cheap computers and mobile gadget , cloud service will become more compelling . Using swarm military service requires a level of trust in the provider . Google will have to essay that it is reliable and honourable with its cloud services or peril alienate exploiter . Are you willing and ready to have a caller like Google handle your data and provide your computer service ?
