NETWORK COMPUTING AND CLOUD COMPUTING

A network computer is a light designed for use only in conjunction with a connection to a computer network. This type of terminal is not equipped with storage units such as hard disk or other data that the operating system loads and applications exclusively via network. Even the loading and saving of processed data is via network. In the late nineties many futurologists and some industrialists like Larry Ellison were convinced that these computers would represent a viable alternative to regular computers. Their convictions were leaving that the network computer would have cost less and having introduced into the network all the information you could work on his projects were everywhere without having to carry around copies of his work, without having to worry about the safety of its data since the data would be stored on servers operated by companies that have taken steps to ensure the security and availability of data.

The idea took up the first terminal to the characters used in the eighties, when graphical user interfaces did not exist or were reserved only for very expensive machines and fast. Network in the computer you had to find only a ROM that provide to make the operating system is loaded from the network. Many modern operating systems allow this possibility though, not being developed to work exclusively on the network, can be slow if the network connecting the computer to the server is not modern or is congested. GUIs based on X11 natively provide the opportunity to network. Indeed, while the program is running on a machine, the graphic interface can be redirected to another machine on the screen.

After an initial market interest in the projects of computer networks were wrecked, the collapse of the cost of computers and computer networks too slow to provide good performance did fail projects of computer networks. Over the years two thousand projects of computer networks have recurred evolved into cloud computing architectures.

ONLY CLOUD COMPUTING

In computer science with the English term cloud computing (cloud computing in Italian refers to a paradigm of delivering IT resources such as storage, processing or transmission of data, characterized by the availability on demand via the Internet from a set of existing resources and configurable
The resources are not fully configured and operated by the supplier affixed to the user, but are assigned, quickly and conveniently, thanks to automated procedures, starting from a set of shared resources with other users leaving the user part of the ‘ burden of configuration. When the user releases the resource, it is similarly reconfigured in the initial state and again made available in the shared pool of resources, with equal speed and economy for the supplier.
The lawful use of the term is disputed by many experts: if these technologies are seen by Rob van der Meulen and Christy Pettey Gartner as a major technological evolution offered by the Internet, by others, such as Richard Stallman, are considered a trap marketing.
Using various types of processing units (CPU), storage devices such as fixed or mobile RAM, internal hard drives or external CD / DVD, USB keys, etc., a computer can process, store, retrieve programs and data.
In the case of computers connected in a local network (LAN) or WAN (WAN) the possibility of processing / storage / recovery can be extended to other computers and remote devices located on the same network.
Leveraging the technology of cloud computing users connected to a cloud provider can perform all these tasks, even through a simple internet browser.
They can, for example, using remote software not directly installed on your computer and save data on storage media on-line prepared by the same provider (using both wired and wireless networks).

THE RISKS OF CLOUD COMPUTING
The cloud computing systems are criticized mainly for the exposure of users to the risks associated with:

1) Computer security and privacy:
Use a cloud service to store personal or sensitive data, expose you to potential problems of invasion of privacy. Personal data are stored in Server Farms of companies that often reside in a state other than the user. The cloud providers, in the event of misconduct or malicious, could gain access to personal information to perform market research and user profiling.
With wireless connections, the security risk increases and is more exposed to cases of piracy due to less security offered by wireless networks. In the presence of illegal acts, such as embezzlement or illegal personal data, the damage could be very serious for the user, with the difficulty of achieving legal solutions and / or refunds if the supplier resides in a state other than your country.
In the case of industries or companies, all data stored in external memory are seriously exposed to possible cases of industrial espionage.

2) Problems of international economic and political
They can occur when public data is collected and stored in private archives, located in a country other than those of users of the “cloud”. Productions crucial and intellectual with a great deal of personal information is stored crescentemente in the form of digital data in private archives centralized and partially accessible. No warranty is given to users for free access future.
Other issues are related to the location of the archives of the “cloud” in some rich countries. If not regulated by specific international standards that could:
increase the “digital divide” between rich and poor (if access to knowledge stored will not be freely granted to all).
promote mainly large corporations with “organisms polycentric” and “minds monocentric” located primarily in the countries of the “cloud”, being the intellectual property considered as a key factor in modern economies “knowledge-based”.
More security and guarantees are there in case the service provider is from the same country / area by applying the same laws / regulations on the privacy and security of the customer (the US legislation or other nations is much other than Italian and becomes impossible to think meet national standards in cloud services with other nations).

3) Continuity of service:
Delegating to an external service management of the data and their processing the user is severely limited in the case where the aforementioned services are not operational (out of service). A possible malfunction also affects a very large number of people simultaneously since these are shared services. Although the best cloud computing services using redundant architectures and qualified personnel in order to prevent malfunction of the system and reduce the likelihood of failures seen by the end user, they do not eliminate the problem entirely. Also, we consider that everything is based on the ability to have an Internet connection at high speed in both download and upload and that even in the case of a connection interruption due to your Internet Service Provider / ISP has the complete paralysis of activities.

4) Difficulty of migration data in the event of a possible change of the manager of cloud services:
As there is a standard defined between the operators of services, a possible change of operator is extremely complex. This finding could be extremely harmful in the event of bankruptcy of the service provider which you have entrusted.