Software Defined Networking - The Next Big Thing

The computer industry has seen a lot of innovation. It all began with the upgrading of internet download and upload speeds to download huge amounts of data. Then came the possibility to store mammoth amounts of data remotely. Thus cloud computing was born. Finally the iPv6 transition came giving rise to a number of URL’s good enough for every individual on this earth. With the introduction of 6LoWPAN, this kind of connectivity has been made possible on a variety of wireless devices also. To deal with these problems and other such troubles a few corporate giants put their hands together to form what is called the Open Networking Foundation. The aim of this foundation is to create a virtualized Software Defined Networking (SDN) computer architecture reliable enough to tackle such kind of networking troubles among other problems.

Software Defined Networking

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging computer networking architecture that has recently emerged. Networked routers and switches are used to handle huge volumes of data. In such routers and switches SDN separates the control plane and the data plane.

How SDN Works

While using SDN the control plane is incorporated in the commodity network equipment while the data plane is incorporated in the commodity network equipment. While using SDN, one can expect super fast optimization of switches. SDN allows for the external sources to access innards of switches and routers packed with huge volumes of data. Because of the ability of SDN to achieve this and more, a majority of computer experts regard SDN as the next big thing in the industry.

Different Variants of SDN

The various SDN models have been discussed are

Floodless and flood-based

With the flood-based SDN model a huge amount of global information is achieved by using popular broadcasting and multicasting techniques. This makes the SDN model more symmetric. Identity learning and global awareness is achieved through flood-based SDN. The disadvantage of using this kind of model is scalability. With the addition of new locations, the load for every location goes up thus bringing down scalability. Depending on distributed hashing and distributed caching of the SDN tables, forwarding in this kind of model is successfully achieved.

Host-based and network-centric

The host-based model also goes by the name ‘assumption model’. An assumption related to the usage of Software Defined Network in the various data-centers is being made. It is because of this assumption that the HyperVisor performs the encapsulation process. This is done in support of the various local machines that are being used to facilitate elasticity.

The network-centric approach clearly distinguishes the end points and network edge. There is a relationship between Software Defined Networking edge, outside host endpoints and access of Top of Rack device. This kind of SDN variant is being counted as one of the best and the traditional methods of networking. One of the advantages of using this kind of SDN is that it does not depend on any end points to carry out routing activity.

Symmetric and asymmetric

The asymmetric model makes sure that global information is centralized to the maximum limit. The more centralized the information is, much easier does it gets to achieve global consolidation. This in turn results in the accessible distribution of SDN traffic. Even in the symmetric distributed model, great effort is made to enhance global information distribution.

These are the most commonly used SDN models.

SDN can be used in any application, enterprise or carrier. They can also be used in a private cloud. However, one of the key areas where SDN is used is carrier support.

The post above is guest article by Christy Haywood who writes for offers.telcoservicesgroup.net, a website known for savings and current hot information on at&t u-verse reviews, besides att.com services.

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Save Music Online: Cloud Store Tools

If your music compendium is exceeding the memory space of your iPod Touch, Android phone, iPhone or iPad then here we have a couple of tools you can utilize to store your music accumulation online and play it on any device you have at your convenience.

Google Music

Google lately founded a music service Google Music, which allow users to stock songs in the cloud free of charge and purchase tracks instantly from the Android Market. Google Music is available to everybody directly on the internet and will be available to mobile users in some days. Users can add and play up to 20000 songs in the Google cloud free of charge, and add any track they want by purchasing it from the Google Music shop.

Google Music grants users the ability to share songs with friends. Google has stamped deals with about 1000 music companies, including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and EMI. Google provides access to 8 million tracks right now. Which includes free content from Shakira, Pearl Jam, and others.


Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player

The Amazon Cloud Drive service offers a free 5GB basic package that can be expanded to 1,000GB, expansion cost at $1 per gigabyte, per year this means a 1000GB plan costs $1000 per year. This cloud keeps documents, videos, photos, and music. But it doesn’t support formats like wav ogg etc. For one year, clients who buy a record album from Amazon's MP3 store are automatically raised to a 20GB trial account for free.

At this cloud music lodges are downloadable any time. It backs up iTunes, and provides compatibility with playlists Android but there is no iOS app. You can also streams on any PC easily.



Simplify Media

To enjoy this service you've to set up the application program on your computer or, you can surf and stream any song from an iPhone (OS 3.0 or later), iPod Touch, or Mac. You can likewise enjoy this service with Xbox, Roku, and Sonos. This tool accepts playlist formats but DRM isn't compatible. The service offers facility to share up to 30 libraries of friends. Libraries here are boundless. However the bad part is that you cannot move your music out of cloud.


MP3 Tunes

MP3 Tunes provides a comfortable, and advanced, scheme for uploading your music and streaming it over the internet. Its synchronization is super cool and it automatically updates cloud with fresh music you that you add to your library. It offers good compatibility with the iPhone, Android, iPod Touch, Logitech, and Squeezebox. It permits to edit song info and album art online but it does not work with DRM music.

Mp3 Tunes offer free Airband app for iPhone/Touch and Android. You can get a 2GB free account but you have to pay $4.95/month for 50GB space, and, you can avail 200GB for $12.95/month. It's compatible with iTunes. And it allows playlist transfer to other sources. It supplies super easy Web interface for streaming and managing music. But the awful part is you can't shift music outside this cloud.


mSpot

MSpot is another good solution for active listening. This cloud allows you to upload up to 2GB of music free of charge and enjoy it from any computer or Android device employing its android app, but there's no iOS app. Its paid programs are likewise substantially cheap. And its desktop program also offers a set of valuable services.


External Resources:
Google Music
Amazon Cloud
Simplify Media
Mp3 Tunes
MSpot

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Microsoft Office And Google Docs: The Power of Two

Microsoft's desktop Office is an excellent all in one tool for creating and editing documents, presentations and spreadsheets in an offline environment. Google's online Docs tool lets you easily view and edit Office documents online using browser, very helpful when you don't have your MS Office with you. Like when you are outdoor with your mobile phone only. You may feel both are competing services, but the fact is each tool has its strong standing point. One tool is matchless in creating documents while other helps you easily access documents online on the go.

COMPATIBILITY ISSUE
Integrating MS Office and Google Docs is really an issue, as perfect integration is not possible because of limitations in Google Docs API. For ideal performance one would like to create documents using MS Office and  will wish to make files available online in Google Docs. And any change in file from Google Docs side must be recorded in desktop copy of file. But as I said perfect integration is not possible. You can try these tips to do things in a good way.

Use Google's free Cloud plug-in; a tool that allows saving MS Office documents to Google Docs with one click. Just create Office, PowerPoint or Excel file and synchronize. Your work will be uploaded to Google Docs. But the only problem with this method is that the edits in uploaded copy will not be recorded in copy of file in your computer.

Another alternate is Gladinet Desktop, this tool creates a virtual drive in your computer and in this virtual drive resides all your Google Docs resources. These documents will appear as if they are saved in your local hard disk. With this drive you can interact in classic fashion. You can edit, drag and drop. All changes will be saved to your online Google Docs account.

One last thing that you must remember is that, when you upload your docs to Google the original formating is changed. If you can't afford this then don't use Google Docs, instead use SkyDrive and Office Web Apps.

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Google Releases Cloud Connect For Microsoft Office

Google has launched a new feature called Google Cloud Connect which is used with Microsoft Office and gives enhanced advantages to MS Office users. Office users can do more collaborative work using cloud service.
Google Official Blog says that this new plug-in for Microsoft Office can be downloaded by everyone (Google Account is needed). It allow users to synchronize all data of MS Office from any format like Word, Excel or PowerPoint and upload these files to Google’s cloud. From there all members of group can collaborate, communicate  and work on the same versions of the files at same time.

Cloud Connect also provides "revision history" that is older versions of files are saved to undo changes. Offline editing is also allowed, letting synchronization of documents at a later date if Internet access is not available at time of writing. Beside this Google has also announced its 90-day Appsperience program that lets businesses test out all of there Google Apps for a small fee. This 90 days long test drive will cost $7000 for companies having 50-500 staff members and $15,000  if number of staff members is more than 500 people.

The Appsperience allows companies access to Google cloud, Google Apps and to Google sites along with collaboration and analytics. All this can be done directly through the control panel of Google Apps.
Google Appsperience's website says spending just $50/user per year, costs for using Google Apps for businesses is very low already, and the figures for the test drive don’t show off the savings of companies. Users of Appsperience can also use additional options like support which surely are beneficial for businesses; and this is the difference that the Appsperience users can make by first starting out cloud based setups. To find out more information about Google Cloud check this video.

Google Cloud Connect is compatible with all versions of MS Office 2003, 2007 and 2010, but not with starter edition of Office 2010. This plug-in is also incompatible with versions that use Microsoft’s Click-to-Run service.

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