Acer has begun developing and selling cloud-computing software and services. The Taiwan-based firm has long made PCs but has been hurt by that market’s contraction. In fact, the company’s ranking among the world’s PC makers recently fell from second to fourth. By entering the cloud market with its Build Your Own Cloud (BYOC) service, Acer will now compete with Amazon and Google, as well as Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard, the latter two of which which recently announced billion-dollar initiatives. “The computer is still our foundation, but BYOC is a new platform for integration, cross-compatibility, and convenience,” stated Acer founder and chair Stan Shih. The company is positioning the service for implementation with the Internet of Things by, for example, enabling users to control home appliances or automobiles via their smartphones. (Reuters)(AFP @ PhysOrg)
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Thursday, May 29, 2014
HP Announces $1 Billion Investment in Cloud Projects
Hewlett-Packard plans to invest $1 billion within the next two years on cloud-computing products and services. Among its projects is the development of services for the OpenStack open-source platform for public and private clouds, which HP will make available in 20 datacenters within the next 18 months. The company also recently announced a collaboration with contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group on creating servers for cloud-computing service providers. Other companies are also investing in cloud computing. For example, Cisco Systems plans to spend $1 billion on a cloud initiative. And Microsoft is making its cloud storage for businesses 40 times larger than it is now. (Reuters)(ZD Net)
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Researchers identify ways to exploit 'cloud browsers' for large-scale, anonymous computing
At issue are cloud browsers, which create a Web interface in the cloud so that computing is done there rather than on a user's machine. This is particularly useful for mobile devices, such as smartphones, which have limited computing power.The cloud-computing paradigm pools the computational power and storage of multiple computers, allowing shared resources for multiple users.
"Think of a cloud browser as being just like the browser on your desktop computer, but working entirely in the cloud and providing only the resulting image to your screen," says Dr. William Enck, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research.
Because these cloud browsers are designed to perform complex functions, the researchers wanted to see if they could be used to perform a series of large-scale computations that had nothing to do with browsing. Specifically, the researchers wanted to determine if they could perform those functions using the "MapReduce" technique developed by Google, which facilitates coordinated computation involving parallel efforts by multiple machines.
The research team knew that coordinating any new series of computations would entail passing large packets of data between different nodes, or cloud browsers. To address this challenge, researchers stored data packets on bit.ly and other URL-shortening sites, and then passed the resulting "links" between various nodes.
Using this technique, the researchers were able to perform standard computation functions using data packets that were 1, 10 and 100 megabytes in size. "It could have been much larger," Enck says, "but we did not want to be an undue burden on any of the free services we were using."
"We've shown that this can be done," Enck adds. "And one of the broader ramifications of this is that it could be done anonymously. For instance, a third party could easily abuse these systems, taking the free computational power and using it to crack passwords."
However, Enck says cloud browsers can protect themselves to some extent by requiring users to create accounts -- and then putting limits on how those accounts are used. This would make it easier to detect potential problems.
The paper, "Abusing Cloud-Based Browsers for Fun and Profit," will be presented Dec. 6 at the 2012 Annual Computer Security Applications Conference in Orlando, Fla. The paper was co-authored by Vasant Tendulkar and Ashwin Shashidharan, graduate students at NC State, and Joe Pletcher, Ryan Snyder and Dr. Kevin Butler, of the University of Oregon. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by North Carolina State University.
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Thursday, October 18, 2012
An operating system in the cloud: TransOS could displace conventional desktop operating systems
Computer users are familiar to different degrees with the operating system that gets their machines up and running, whether that is the Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, Linux, ChromeOS or other operating system. The OS handles the links between hardware, the CPU, memory, hard drive, peripherals such as printers and cameras as well as the components that connect the computer to the Internet, critically it also allows the user to run the various bits of software and applications they need, such as their email programs, web browsers, word processors, spreadsheets and games.
While, operating systems seem firmly entrenched in the personal computer and their files, documents, movies, sounds and images, sit deep within the hard drive. Traditionally, software too is stored on the same hard drive for quick access to the programs a user needs at any given time. However, there is a growing movement that is taking the applications off the personal hard drive and putting them "in the cloud."
The user connects to the Internet and "runs" the software as and when needed from a cloud server, perhaps even storing their files in the cloud too. This has numerous advantages for the user. First, the software can be kept up to date automatically without their intervention. Secondly, the software is independent of the hardware and operating system and so can be run from almost any computer with an Internet connection. Thirdly, if the user files are also in the cloud, then they can access and use their files anywhere in the world with a network connection and at any time.
The obvious next step is to make the entire process transparent by stripping the operating system from the computer and putting that in the cloud. The computer then becomes a sophisticated, but dummy terminal and its configuration and capabilities become irrelevant to how the user interacts with their files. Already most types of software are represented in the cloud by alternative or additional versions of their desktop equivalents but we are yet to see a fully functional cloud-based OS. For instance, systems such as Java were developed to allow applications to run in a web browser irrespective of the computer or operating system on which that browser was running.
Now, Yaoxue Zhang and Yuezhi Zhou of Tsinghua University, in Beijing, China, have at last developed an operating system for the cloud -- TransOS. The operating system code is stored on a cloud server and allows a connection from a bare terminal computer. The terminal has a minimal amount of code that boots it up and connects it to the Internet dynamically. TransOS then downloads specific pieces of code that offer the user options as if they were running a conventional operating system via a graphical user interface. Applications are then run, calling on the TransOS code only as needed so that memory is not hogged by inactive operating system code as it is by a conventional desktop computer operating system.
"TransOS manages all the resources to provide integrated services for users, including traditional operating systems," the team says. "The TransOS manages all the networked and virtualized hardware and software resources, including traditional OS, physical and virtualized underlying hardware resources, and enables users can select and run any service on demand," the team says
The researchers suggest that TransOS need not be limited to personal computers, but offers the capacity to be enabled on other domestic (refrigerators and washing machines, for instance) and factory equipment. The concept should also work well with mobile devices, such as phones and tablet PCs. It is essential, the team adds, that a cloud operating system architecture and relevant interface standards now be established to allow TransOS to be developed for a vast range of applications.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Inderscience Publishers, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
Yaoxue Zhang, Yuezhi Zhou. TransOS: a transparent computing-based operating system for the cloud. Int. J. Cloud Computing, 2012, 1, 287-301Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Cloud computing: Same weakness found in seven cloud storage services
Security experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT) in Darmstadt have discovered that numerous cloud storage service providers do not check the e-mail addresses provided during the registration process. This fact in combination with functions provided by these service providers, such as file sharing or integrated notifications, result in various possibilities for attacks.
For example, attackers can bring malware into circulation or spy out confidential data. As one of the supporters of the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED), the Fraunhofer SIT scrutinized various cloud storage services. The testers discovered the same weakness with the free service offerings from CloudMe, Dropbox, HiDrive, IDrive, SugarSync, Syncplicity and Wuala. Scientists from Fraunhofer SIT presented their findings on the possible forms of attacks on June 26, 2012, at the 11th International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (IEEE TrustCom) in Liverpool.
Attackers do not require any programming knowledge whatsoever to exploit these weaknesses. All they need is to create an account using a false e-mail account. The attacker can then bring malware into circulation using another person's identity. With the services provided by Dropbox, IDrive, SugarSync, Syncplicity and Wuala, attackers can even spy on unsuspecting computer users with the help of the false e-mail address by encouraging them to upload confidential data to the cloud for joint access.
Fraunhofer SIT informed the affected service providers many months ago. And although these weaknesses can be removed with very simple and well-known methods, such as sending an e-mail with an activation link, not all of them are convinced that there is a need for action. Dr. Markus Schneider, Deputy Director of Fraunhofer SIT: "Dropbox, HiDrive, SugarSync, Syncplicity and Wuala have reacted after receiving our information." Some of these providers are now using confirmation e-mails to avoid this weakness, a method that has been in use for quite some time now. Others have implemented other mechanisms. "We think it is important that users are informed about the existing problems," said Schneider. "Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide 100% protection against attacks, even if the affected services are avoided. It is therefore important that cloud storage services providers remove such weaknesses, as this helps to protect users more effectively."
Consumers who use the affected services should be careful. Those who receive a request to download data from the cloud or upload data to it should send an e-mail to the supposed requestor to verify whether the request was really sent by them.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Fraunhofer SIT, via AlphaGalileo.
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Monday, July 16, 2012
Cloud computing: Same weakness found in seven cloud storage services
Security experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT) in Darmstadt have discovered that numerous cloud storage service providers do not check the e-mail addresses provided during the registration process. This fact in combination with functions provided by these service providers, such as file sharing or integrated notifications, result in various possibilities for attacks.
For example, attackers can bring malware into circulation or spy out confidential data. As one of the supporters of the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED), the Fraunhofer SIT scrutinized various cloud storage services. The testers discovered the same weakness with the free service offerings from CloudMe, Dropbox, HiDrive, IDrive, SugarSync, Syncplicity and Wuala. Scientists from Fraunhofer SIT presented their findings on the possible forms of attacks on June 26, 2012, at the 11th International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (IEEE TrustCom) in Liverpool.
Attackers do not require any programming knowledge whatsoever to exploit these weaknesses. All they need is to create an account using a false e-mail account. The attacker can then bring malware into circulation using another person's identity. With the services provided by Dropbox, IDrive, SugarSync, Syncplicity and Wuala, attackers can even spy on unsuspecting computer users with the help of the false e-mail address by encouraging them to upload confidential data to the cloud for joint access.
Fraunhofer SIT informed the affected service providers many months ago. And although these weaknesses can be removed with very simple and well-known methods, such as sending an e-mail with an activation link, not all of them are convinced that there is a need for action. Dr. Markus Schneider, Deputy Director of Fraunhofer SIT: "Dropbox, HiDrive, SugarSync, Syncplicity and Wuala have reacted after receiving our information." Some of these providers are now using confirmation e-mails to avoid this weakness, a method that has been in use for quite some time now. Others have implemented other mechanisms. "We think it is important that users are informed about the existing problems," said Schneider. "Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide 100% protection against attacks, even if the affected services are avoided. It is therefore important that cloud storage services providers remove such weaknesses, as this helps to protect users more effectively."
Consumers who use the affected services should be careful. Those who receive a request to download data from the cloud or upload data to it should send an e-mail to the supposed requestor to verify whether the request was really sent by them.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Fraunhofer SIT, via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.