Cloud Computing

 Comparing Cloud Computing Features

Dropbox has launched many new features this year (2014) to improve security and also allow its users to have more online storage available for cheaper prices. Dropbox this year will allow any new Samsung purchased by a user from the end of September to come installed with a drop box application. With this application it will allow you to directly upload and store your photos online and then be able to view them for the drop box application.

Pro users of drop box usually paid $10 a month for 100Gb of storage has now upgraded to $10 a month for 1TB , making it compete against Google drive. Being a professional user at drop box also provides many benefits and allows them to be able to add passwords for links and set expiration dates that will take down files after a certain amount of time has passed. Drop box really decrease their price since implementing the $10 for 1TB a month, because previously they had storage plans for 200GB for $20 and 500GB for $50 a month.

Google have this year increased their performance of their Google Drive application and added new features such as seeing who has accessed your files and being able to print directly from the application.

Google keeps on providing for its clients by bringing forth over 70 languages to choose from and making it more accessible for blind and visually impaired users to use.

Google dropped its drive plan prices this year. The 15GB still remain free but the 100GB dropped its price from $4.99 to $1.99 per month. They then dropped 1TB from $49.99 to $9.99 per month.

 Cloud Computing Benefits

Cloud computing is a service that allows users and companies to upload and save their files on the internet. Having a subscription or an account of a cloud computing provider may provide many benefits and save the user a lot of time and money.

I study at a university and I think that everyone should have access to the internet and be able to store their work online. Storing online would be perfect for students since they don’t need to spend money on technology such and external hard drives or even memory sticks. Cloud computing also increases flexibility for users, for example they can store their work online from one location and then be able to access it from another location.

Google Drive is good for storing files online and provides many features; one of them are being able to easily share files amongst users, and them being able to download files and uploading them again.  Google provides every user a 15GB worth of storage and this is shared amongst the most-used services: Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos.

As of 13 March 2014, storage plans offered by Google, are all charged exclusively in US$ so any customer outside of the US will need to pay exchange charges, are as follows:

Storage	Price
15 GB	Free
100 GB	US$ 1.99 per month
1 TB	US$ 9.99 per month
10 TB	US$ 99.99 per month
20 TB	US$ 199.99 per month
30 TB	US$ 299.99 per month

Comparing Server Virtualization Tools

	IBM PowerVM Express Edition	Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 DataCenter	Microsoft Windows Virtual PC
Virtualization Type	Full Virtualization Hardware Assisted Virtualization Operating System Virtualization	Full Virtualization	Full Virtualization Hardware Assisted Virtualization
User	Enterprise	Small-Medium Business Enterprise	Small-Medium Business
Features	Capacity Planning/Management Change Reports Configuration Snapshots Dynamic Resource Allocation High Availability	Dynamic Resource Allocation High Availability Multiple Host Resource Pools Power Management Shared Resource Pools	Change Reports
Host OS	No host OS	Windows Server 2008 (R2) w/Hyper-V role, Microsoft Hyper-V Server	Windows 7
Guest OS	No host OS	Supported drivers for Windows 2000, Windows 2003,Windows 2008, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux(SUSE 10 released, more announced)	Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008

Out of the Server Virtualization Tools above I would recommend Microsoft Windows Virtual PC since the virtual type provides full virtual assistance and it can be done with hardware virtualization. Small and medium businesses are the users and they can use a variety of features and the main feature listed is providing the ability to change reports.  Microsoft Windows Virtual PC also serves a variety of Windows operating systems.