Case Study:
Cloud Pro Leverages iPad’s touch: Benefits Start-Ups
The trend in cloud hosting by a vendor increased with the introduction of helpful apps. Rackspace (rackspace.com) launched Cloud Pro in April 2010. Cloud Pro leverages iPad’s touch interface to enable its customers to manage their servers. Using iPad, network administrators (admins) can turn on backups for a server; create new servers from backups; manage backup scheduling; and reboot, rename, resize, and delete servers. Network admins can perform these functions anytime and from anywhere using their mobiles. The app is available at no additional charge through Apple’s iTunes store. A list of latest features is posted on rackspacecloud.com/ipad. This arrangement is of enormous benefit to start-up companies. The iPad tablet and Rackspace Cloud servers lower the entry barriers for Web start-ups because they no longer have to make large investments in hardware to get their businesses going. App developer Mike Mayo who developed the Rackspace Cloud app for the iPhone and Cloud Pro for theiPad, pointed out the significance of this service: It’s amazing to think that racks of servers in corporations once managed by entire IT teams can now be handled by one person with the touch of a finger using an iPad tablet from anywhere. . . . I believe the mobility and functionality made possible by the Apple iPad and The Rackspace Cloud has the potential to transform the way business applications are managed.
Q1. Consider this statement: Cloud computing is about the flexible delivery of services at the point of need. Explain how Cloud Pro offers flexible delivery of network management (the service). Explain how it offers that service to network admins at the point of need (e.g., while on vacation or away from the office).
Q2. Discuss one benefit and one disadvantage of Cloud Pro for network admins.
Q3. Search and view a video demo of Rackspace’s Cloud Pro for the iPad. Does the app have amazing features, as Mike Mayo described?
Your answer must be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font (size 12), one-inch margins on all sides, APA format and also include references.