Choosing the topic
I am interested to learn about the invention of cloud technology and how it revolutionalised the way we work today.
I personally anticipate that cloud technology will become an integral part of technology, deeply entrenched within our systems such that we will, in the next 2 decades, be unable to imagine our lives without it. I chose this because cloud technology has only emerged roughly 10 years ago as a purely experimental research topic, yet today it is increasingly involved in many avenues, and we continue to find ways to improve the technology.
Outline
Executive summary
The paper will cover the background of cloud technology, its applications today and how it has revolutionized the way we work today. We explore its strengths and weaknesses and how it has aided the rise of cloud computing. We then explore possible solutions and anticipate changes in the landscape of the near future.
Background
Cloud technology is today widely used as it removes infrastructure and capital expense as barriers of entry. This is a great plus point to small startups. Cloud technology is reinventive in itself. It will continue to unleash innovations and bring new innovations and efficiencies to businesses.
Wikipedia: "In early 2008, Eucalyptus became the first open-source, AWS API-compatible platform for deploying private clouds"
Historical perspective
The underlying concept of cloud computing dates back to the 1950s, when large-scale mainframe became available in academia and corporations, accessible via thin clients / terminal
computers. Because it was costly to buy a mainframe, it became
important to find ways to get the greatest return on the investment in
them, allowing multiple users to share both the physical access to the
computer from multiple terminals as well as to share the CPU time, eliminating periods of inactivity, which became known in the industry as time-sharing
Current situation
Today, many innovators such as Apple, Samsung have incorporated cloud technology into their devices. Many subscribe to the ecosystem of devices eg Apple with iPads, iPhones and iMacs which are seamlessly connected. Samsung has hosted content of mobile phones including contacts, game data into clouds. This enables a user to restore directly their content into a brand new phone. (The easing up of switching to the next best smartphone is a great move for Samsung, in my opinion.)
The use of cloud computing utility has increased significantly in recent
years and it appears to be a natural evolution of the data centre to execute
computing and storage in a more scalable way. With such a significant increase,
the market is growing quickly and more companies are providing new services
with better features, including isolated services. We strongly believe that in
the near future, cloud computing will be widely used in the healthcare sector.
Several companies are already adopting this kind of solution, offering PACS and
RIS services in private clouds.
Medical images are very important records, and so the storage repository needs
redundancy to be a reliable system. Cloud providers offer this data security
and backup system without any worries or additional charges for customers.
Medical institutions can reduce the costs of local storage maintenance with
PACS archive outsourcing. Moreover, outsourcing is an opportunity for small
image centres that purchase modality equipment, despite not having the
financial resources to buy software and hardware to keep up a PACS repository
as it grants a redundancy/ backup system.
For your comments please! :)
Thursday 31 January 2013
Week 4
This week we talked about drivers of world change as well as change leadership.
We analysed through readings, how the world is expected to change in the near future under many different categories. It was fascinating how the world collaborates with the FBI, CIA and all these intelligence agencies to collate and synthesize reports anticipating world change. I guess innovation has been a habit for the past century. The report is great to have.
Change comes in certain stages. Change is good. However, the transition is usually not smooth as we are out of our comfort zones and need to experiment to find an optimal performance level etc. Beyond these teething problems, we get into the zone and never look back. In the future we would wonder why we never made a switch earlier. I believe this view applies to many areas such as environment, politics, science and more.
Change leadership imparts to me a message that, in order to leave a lasting legacy, we need to be receptive to change and adapt to the environment. We explored many different ways to manage change. We also learnt that people are independent thinkers. It is now harder to be a leader than it used to be. Due to the context of scarce resources and all, many say that this is the best time to be living and leading. (not the exact phrase).
I personally liked Ivan's presentation this week as it highlights the emergence of new avenues for advertising and packaging brand image, ideology and more. However, phenomenon like Youtube and Facebook might not be a great thing to have, sometimes.
1) Negative things spread like wildfire
Remember the 10 and 13 year old brothers who were run down by a cement truck just this week? Pictures of the scene were circulating around via social media. How upset would the parents have felt?
Of course, through these trials we learn of the ones who have heart. Mr Brown tweeted, asking netizens to stoo sharing the gory photos. The family is having it bad enough.
2)Difficult to monitor/ enforce
Our only protection is our own moral compass. Some may be misled by convincing arguments, rhetoric, appeals to pity and more. When applied mildly, perhaps we part with $400. When used for a different purpose, nations can be jolted into revolt.
However, it is my opinion that these avenues should be present as a check in balance of power and more. Also, today we are learning how to differentiate between warped arguments, opinions and facts. From time to time, we make imperfect decisions and are swayed by emotions, the list goes on. However, social media does more good than bad. It gives us perspective and interconnectivity, never before experienced in the same way.
Rating for this session: 8/10
We analysed through readings, how the world is expected to change in the near future under many different categories. It was fascinating how the world collaborates with the FBI, CIA and all these intelligence agencies to collate and synthesize reports anticipating world change. I guess innovation has been a habit for the past century. The report is great to have.
Change comes in certain stages. Change is good. However, the transition is usually not smooth as we are out of our comfort zones and need to experiment to find an optimal performance level etc. Beyond these teething problems, we get into the zone and never look back. In the future we would wonder why we never made a switch earlier. I believe this view applies to many areas such as environment, politics, science and more.
Change leadership imparts to me a message that, in order to leave a lasting legacy, we need to be receptive to change and adapt to the environment. We explored many different ways to manage change. We also learnt that people are independent thinkers. It is now harder to be a leader than it used to be. Due to the context of scarce resources and all, many say that this is the best time to be living and leading. (not the exact phrase).
I personally liked Ivan's presentation this week as it highlights the emergence of new avenues for advertising and packaging brand image, ideology and more. However, phenomenon like Youtube and Facebook might not be a great thing to have, sometimes.
1) Negative things spread like wildfire
Remember the 10 and 13 year old brothers who were run down by a cement truck just this week? Pictures of the scene were circulating around via social media. How upset would the parents have felt?
Of course, through these trials we learn of the ones who have heart. Mr Brown tweeted, asking netizens to stoo sharing the gory photos. The family is having it bad enough.
2)Difficult to monitor/ enforce
Our only protection is our own moral compass. Some may be misled by convincing arguments, rhetoric, appeals to pity and more. When applied mildly, perhaps we part with $400. When used for a different purpose, nations can be jolted into revolt.
However, it is my opinion that these avenues should be present as a check in balance of power and more. Also, today we are learning how to differentiate between warped arguments, opinions and facts. From time to time, we make imperfect decisions and are swayed by emotions, the list goes on. However, social media does more good than bad. It gives us perspective and interconnectivity, never before experienced in the same way.
Rating for this session: 8/10
Wednesday 23 January 2013
Week 3 - Sustainability & innovation management
Sustainable Growth
This week, we turned our attention to the way we grow our civilisations. Mankind has consistently been progressing and advancing. All this was done at the expense of our environment. Today, we have a HUGE population of 5 billion people, melting polar ice caps, holes in the ozone layer, insufficient space for landfills time to come and more. Something's got to give.
We are transitioning from a linear to a cyclical development. Renewable energy sources come into the picture. Great amounts of planning and infrastructural changes have to be made to transition from our current system which serves us ever so well.
1)Technology, as Prof mentions, is the application of knowledge.
2)Technology is easy. People are hard.
Technology (the solution to an ailing earth) is present. An argument rages on, in cyberspace, talks, laboratories and seminar rooms about how we have ALL we need to save ourselves. The question is, are we moving towards a cyclical development cycle fast enough? The inertia/ reluctance of the present is tough.. The consolation is.. Many in the developing nations are starting to realise and consider environmental factors when making decisions. Some points for consideration:
Maslow's Hierachy of Needs
How many can consider the effects of their own carbon footprint when they are starving/ lack basic necessities? Probably not many....
However, with the Ten Milennia Goals, help from developed countries comes in. There seems to be hope that more can be freed from the cycle of extreme poverty.
With that much change required, plenty is left to the imagination. However, some things are undoubtedly clear.
We. Have. Got. To. Change.
Innovation Management
Today we learnt the art of reinventing and product differentiation. Many tell the success story of Apple with the rise of its innovative technology and cross product integration.
Innovation management, to me, is more like being visionary. Being able to spot trends, knowing the relevant markets and adjusting accordingly.
Other thoughts
Prof's written article about valley/ summit/ cloud opportunities was an eye opener.
The picture painted in my head one that links the cloud (industry in infancy), summit (industry gaining traction) and valley (industry saturation). It is an interesting concept. However I am unsure how the dots connect.... I hope that at the end of the course I would gain some insight wrt this...
To me, inequality exists because of the technology called social fabric we adopt. This would be called capitalism today. Capitalism brings about growth to a country. However in many cases, across nations, healthy rates of growth are also accompanied by increasing income disparity.
The above, continued (increasing efficiency at an exponential rate), coupled with other backward civilisations left behind causes a great rift in productivity and hence wealth.
Education, together with government initiative and willingness to compromise are key factors to address inequality. We can list the factors and tools we require, however getting from the current status quo to eliminating income inequality is terribly difficult. Communism (I guess), to the closest model to that. I guess the world chose Capitalism ask a better form of 'technology'.
Conclusion
All in all, I think its interesting for the guest speakers to present their points of view regarding some articles. However we need to buck up wrt our readings, even tho some are incredibly long.
Rating: 6/10
This week, we turned our attention to the way we grow our civilisations. Mankind has consistently been progressing and advancing. All this was done at the expense of our environment. Today, we have a HUGE population of 5 billion people, melting polar ice caps, holes in the ozone layer, insufficient space for landfills time to come and more. Something's got to give.
We are transitioning from a linear to a cyclical development. Renewable energy sources come into the picture. Great amounts of planning and infrastructural changes have to be made to transition from our current system which serves us ever so well.
1)Technology, as Prof mentions, is the application of knowledge.
2)Technology is easy. People are hard.
Technology (the solution to an ailing earth) is present. An argument rages on, in cyberspace, talks, laboratories and seminar rooms about how we have ALL we need to save ourselves. The question is, are we moving towards a cyclical development cycle fast enough? The inertia/ reluctance of the present is tough.. The consolation is.. Many in the developing nations are starting to realise and consider environmental factors when making decisions. Some points for consideration:
Maslow's Hierachy of Needs
How many can consider the effects of their own carbon footprint when they are starving/ lack basic necessities? Probably not many....
However, with the Ten Milennia Goals, help from developed countries comes in. There seems to be hope that more can be freed from the cycle of extreme poverty.
With that much change required, plenty is left to the imagination. However, some things are undoubtedly clear.
We. Have. Got. To. Change.
Innovation Management
Today we learnt the art of reinventing and product differentiation. Many tell the success story of Apple with the rise of its innovative technology and cross product integration.
Innovation management, to me, is more like being visionary. Being able to spot trends, knowing the relevant markets and adjusting accordingly.
Other thoughts
Prof's written article about valley/ summit/ cloud opportunities was an eye opener.
The picture painted in my head one that links the cloud (industry in infancy), summit (industry gaining traction) and valley (industry saturation). It is an interesting concept. However I am unsure how the dots connect.... I hope that at the end of the course I would gain some insight wrt this...
To me, inequality exists because of the technology called social fabric we adopt. This would be called capitalism today. Capitalism brings about growth to a country. However in many cases, across nations, healthy rates of growth are also accompanied by increasing income disparity.
The above, continued (increasing efficiency at an exponential rate), coupled with other backward civilisations left behind causes a great rift in productivity and hence wealth.
Education, together with government initiative and willingness to compromise are key factors to address inequality. We can list the factors and tools we require, however getting from the current status quo to eliminating income inequality is terribly difficult. Communism (I guess), to the closest model to that. I guess the world chose Capitalism ask a better form of 'technology'.
Conclusion
All in all, I think its interesting for the guest speakers to present their points of view regarding some articles. However we need to buck up wrt our readings, even tho some are incredibly long.
Rating: 6/10
Tuesday 15 January 2013
Week 2
Lessons this week are interesting. We assess the dominant players of the past in terms of medicine, technology, culture. Their rise and declines were split into 3 phases:
1) Rising star
Opennes to change, embracing new things, thoughts, ideas. Adaptating to and making change
2) Dominant Player
Acquired proficiency from past pursuits of technology, ideas. The ones on the forefront in their domain.
3) Falling star
Pessimism, lacking in ability to adapt and change.
I guess the class agreed that the rise and declines of empires were due to a myriad of factors, but many share the lack of ability to change and adapt.
In view of the world, the "white men" were more superior, conquering other continents and countries, destroying the infrastructure and 'technology' in place. The white man put in place policies from his own country and took advantage of the native people. This had been consistent throughout history.
Today, the world in increasingly interconnected. Economies cannot do without each other. Borders have been blurred. We live in changing times, with implications we are only beginning to understand.
I particularly remembered the part about Eugenics as time was short and the discussion could not go on. Eugenics was probably an idea, a study to produce the perfect human race. However, it was taken and applied in extreme ways. For example, laws were established where people could not marry freely. I disagree with the extremism in application of eugenics, and feel that it is unnecessary.
Charles Darwin, a biologist from England in the 19th century wrote a book on The Origin of Species via natural selection where each species in the wild would survive depending on the key factor of adaptability to their environment. The fitter and stronger within each species would win over more resources and pass down their genes. Over time this results in evolution.
In the context of the human societal fabric, I believe that the strongest and best in each society would naturally be attracted to each other. It is all part of our biological mechanism. Does this happen via emitting pheromones? I am not the best equipped to answer that, but humans having lived through ice ages and evolved gradually to walk upright must have possessed something similar to adaptability to preserve the species. I believe that, naturally, the human species would naturally evolve in an upward trend. In the future, I believe we would still follow some laws of the jungle yet satisfying our conditions for love or prerequisites of 5 'C's (Singaporeans, haha). By placing restrictions upon interracial marriages and reproduction status quo for unworthy individuals, it is a lack of ethics camouflaged in the name of eugenics.
All in all, the session was interesting and we all couldnt bear to leave the class till 3.30pm at least. Just kidding. I rate my session 8/10. I like personal presentations by people. They give a different viewpoint, every time. Challenges our thoughts and perceptions. Looking forward to the next class..
1) Rising star
Opennes to change, embracing new things, thoughts, ideas. Adaptating to and making change
2) Dominant Player
Acquired proficiency from past pursuits of technology, ideas. The ones on the forefront in their domain.
3) Falling star
Pessimism, lacking in ability to adapt and change.
I guess the class agreed that the rise and declines of empires were due to a myriad of factors, but many share the lack of ability to change and adapt.
In view of the world, the "white men" were more superior, conquering other continents and countries, destroying the infrastructure and 'technology' in place. The white man put in place policies from his own country and took advantage of the native people. This had been consistent throughout history.
Today, the world in increasingly interconnected. Economies cannot do without each other. Borders have been blurred. We live in changing times, with implications we are only beginning to understand.
I particularly remembered the part about Eugenics as time was short and the discussion could not go on. Eugenics was probably an idea, a study to produce the perfect human race. However, it was taken and applied in extreme ways. For example, laws were established where people could not marry freely. I disagree with the extremism in application of eugenics, and feel that it is unnecessary.
Charles Darwin, a biologist from England in the 19th century wrote a book on The Origin of Species via natural selection where each species in the wild would survive depending on the key factor of adaptability to their environment. The fitter and stronger within each species would win over more resources and pass down their genes. Over time this results in evolution.
In the context of the human societal fabric, I believe that the strongest and best in each society would naturally be attracted to each other. It is all part of our biological mechanism. Does this happen via emitting pheromones? I am not the best equipped to answer that, but humans having lived through ice ages and evolved gradually to walk upright must have possessed something similar to adaptability to preserve the species. I believe that, naturally, the human species would naturally evolve in an upward trend. In the future, I believe we would still follow some laws of the jungle yet satisfying our conditions for love or prerequisites of 5 'C's (Singaporeans, haha). By placing restrictions upon interracial marriages and reproduction status quo for unworthy individuals, it is a lack of ethics camouflaged in the name of eugenics.
All in all, the session was interesting and we all couldnt bear to leave the class till 3.30pm at least. Just kidding. I rate my session 8/10. I like personal presentations by people. They give a different viewpoint, every time. Challenges our thoughts and perceptions. Looking forward to the next class..
Tuesday 8 January 2013
Week one
Week one was interesting to me. An introduction round the class was underway and I am reminded of the uniqueness of mankind.
Timeline of man was fascinating. To actually see before my eyes in chronological order many cultural, racial as well as religious events. It was something special. The facts. What happened. Who conquered.
This brings us to Yali's Question:
"Why do white men have so much cargo, and we so little?"
1) Many would attribute it to geography, culture, idealogy, invention, opening up of trade routes... The list is long. It is difficult to pinpoint how mankind went from hunters and gatherers to a professional, organised and complex system in a concrete jungle yet there can be countless explanations.
2) A phrase caught my attention. "We are in exponential times" I believe that change/ progress occurs exponentially. The Africans who were backward in the use of metals, herding etc, could eventually not catch up and could only stand in owe of flying metal planes and cargo that came along.
3) Perspective/ Resistance to change
Cannot remember the exact contributor of the opinion. However the idea driven across was that, the hunter gatherer Africans were intrinsically happy. Combined with the usual inertia against change, the transition to herding, building cities would take a while. On the other hand, other societies blossomed. Readings were interesting, providing information on how mankind involved, developed, specialised, fought, conquered, multiplied, researched. While the middle east was the most advanced at a certain point in time as the West was in a slump we all know as "The Dark Ages", one cannot help but wonder how the Middle East established their dominance in the first place. Perhaps, the Middle East got the best of both the developing East and West, being strategically located on the Silk Road. They learned from the East, traded with the West, improved on discoveries. Meanwhile.. On the less explored continent of Africa, the huntsmen and gatherers sourced for their food, as we were originally designed for genetically...
Points for discussion:
1) Technology and world change in the modern context: It is a double edged sword. However, are we outdoing ourselves by as much as we do? Before we fully utilise what we have.. It becomes obsolete!
2) Are we "Over-developed"? (Developed too much such that we cannot function efficiently)
Rating: 7/10 A good start. Some broad questions remain. They seem to pave the way for many more intermediate objectives to be achieved and questions to be answered.
Timeline of man was fascinating. To actually see before my eyes in chronological order many cultural, racial as well as religious events. It was something special. The facts. What happened. Who conquered.
This brings us to Yali's Question:
"Why do white men have so much cargo, and we so little?"
1) Many would attribute it to geography, culture, idealogy, invention, opening up of trade routes... The list is long. It is difficult to pinpoint how mankind went from hunters and gatherers to a professional, organised and complex system in a concrete jungle yet there can be countless explanations.
2) A phrase caught my attention. "We are in exponential times" I believe that change/ progress occurs exponentially. The Africans who were backward in the use of metals, herding etc, could eventually not catch up and could only stand in owe of flying metal planes and cargo that came along.
3) Perspective/ Resistance to change
Cannot remember the exact contributor of the opinion. However the idea driven across was that, the hunter gatherer Africans were intrinsically happy. Combined with the usual inertia against change, the transition to herding, building cities would take a while. On the other hand, other societies blossomed. Readings were interesting, providing information on how mankind involved, developed, specialised, fought, conquered, multiplied, researched. While the middle east was the most advanced at a certain point in time as the West was in a slump we all know as "The Dark Ages", one cannot help but wonder how the Middle East established their dominance in the first place. Perhaps, the Middle East got the best of both the developing East and West, being strategically located on the Silk Road. They learned from the East, traded with the West, improved on discoveries. Meanwhile.. On the less explored continent of Africa, the huntsmen and gatherers sourced for their food, as we were originally designed for genetically...
Points for discussion:
1) Technology and world change in the modern context: It is a double edged sword. However, are we outdoing ourselves by as much as we do? Before we fully utilise what we have.. It becomes obsolete!
2) Are we "Over-developed"? (Developed too much such that we cannot function efficiently)
Rating: 7/10 A good start. Some broad questions remain. They seem to pave the way for many more intermediate objectives to be achieved and questions to be answered.
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