Recently I had an experience of reading a book titled "Being Online" written by the Dr. Jian Wang, the founder of Alibaba Cloud. The book came to me as a complimentary copy through some sources but it is available in Kindle and paperback versions with leading online portals selling books.
The book starts with a foreword from Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba group. Jack Ma writes about his experiences with Dr. Jian Wang and how he assigned the task of establishing Alibaba Cloud.
In my personal opinion, this book is an eye opener to provide an eye opener on how to understand about the prime concepts like data, internet, mobile and cloud computing. The knowledge shared along with the analogies connecting with providing understanding of cloud computing in layman's terminology is phenomenal. This book provides a clear explanation about all the newest technologies around us. A few excerpts from the book is taken to explain the importance of the book.
Initially the importance and difference between data and information are well addressed and then discussion is done on the availability of resources. The availability of data deals more with the data available online. Data available offline is equivalent to the data which is non existent. So the availability of data gains value only when the particular data is made available online. This gives rise to the need of data storage systems which can make data available online most of the time.
A real life experience of Dr. Jian Wang is taken to explain the value of data available online. Once upon a time around Tibet region in China, there was no connectivity with other region. But now this issue is well addressed with the availability of a smartphone and solar power panel. The availability of internet even in the remote regions of the world makes a person in the middle of nowhere to get connected with the rest of the world.
The iconic aspect of the book is the parable which compares cloud computing with other sources of utilities. The author coins the term utility computing which encapsulates the concepts of cloud computing to be understood the way other utilities like electricity, water and internet are understood.
This is the most powerful teaching pedagogy which can be applied when teaching communities prepare their lecture notes to make the students understand better about cloud computing. This sounds unconventional but the power leveraged in the learning process is tremendous while teaching and learning concepts of cloud computing. Beyond these, so many concepts spanning around 10 chapters are available in this book including Moore's law. This book is a must read for anyone who wants a start with IT career. The outcome of this book is to open the horizons of thinking.
Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are for reference only and don't necessarily represent the official views of Alibaba Cloud.
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