Building Your Own Dropbox Equivalent. My previous dog food post did generate a couple of requests for more detailed instructions on how to build your own private cloud storage repository, so here goes.
First, you need to have a server somewhere that will always be on, or at least on as much of the time as you want to access your cloud storage. I happen to have a server in the Rackspace Cloud that I leave running for various purposes at $10/month. If you already have a cloud server or VPS that you’re running somewhere, or a home/work machine, that works fine too. Next, you need to be running GlusterFS on your server and clients. There are already pre-packaged versions available for some Linux distributions, though some are more current than others. At first, you’ll want to create your volumes and start your server-side daemons the “normal” way, something like this. # netstat -lpn | grep glusterfsd # iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 24009 -j ACCEPT 24009 is just the port I happened to get.
Layer 8: What kind of cloud computing environment do you get for $6M? The US Air Force said today it would spend $6 million to set up a state-of-the-art cloud computing research center at the University of Illinois.
The Air Force's Assured Cloud Computing (ACC) Center, will focus on developing technology to ensure mission critical data can get through the cloud securely and sometimes in the face of a cyberattack or other interference. How did we get here? : 25 tech touchstones of the past 25 years According to the Air Force, specific areas it is looking to develop include cloud monitoring, virtual machine design, formal protocol design, information and mission assurance. Additional expected areas of expertise include: estimation theory in local and global environments, theory for the design and analysis of communication protocols, and management of computational and communications resources.
This isn't the Air Force's first foray into cloud computing. Follow Michael Cooney on Twitter: nwwlayer8. Information technology goes global: Tanks in the cloud. The Cloud: Battle of the Tech Titans. Amazon.com's (AMZN) squat Seattle headquarters looks nothing like the country club affairs found in Silicon Valley.
There are no free soft drinks or volleyball courts. The light fixtures hanging from the ceiling in the reception area aren't fixtures at all but rather collections of extension cords fitted with bulbs. The receptionists lack computerized systems for registering guests. They simply write down visitors' names on a piece of paper. Such is low-margin life in online retail, where Wal-Mart (WMT) stands at the ready, waiting to take away your extension cords.
Most people recognize this Amazon: Jeff Bezos's hyperproficient Borders-killer; one of the few dot-com initial public offerings that didn't end up a punch line; fount of millions of smiling cardboard boxes bearing everything from dildos to diapers. AWS is growing like crazy. One other thing about the cloud: It's turbulent. The battle roughly breaks down to two sides. Stadil runs these night classes in his spare time.