Dropbox

Today i'm gonna talk about my distributed technology study and my topic is Dropbox!

First I want to tell you that what will be present today, I'll introduce you to the what is dropbox, concept of Dropbox, How dropbox work and some sample of dropbox if we have time. You may have this kind of problem, like me today, i have to present but I have problem with computer and forgot my USB drive! then you may realize that you need a service that can provide you the resource and you can access anytime with any machine. Umm, kind of interested, isn't it? And that's why Drew Houston founded Dropbox in 2007 and officially launched at 2008 and become more popular in rapid period.

Well! you might want to know what is dropbox, right?

Dropbox is a web-based file hosting service. it uses cloud computing to enable user to store, like here if your computer have a problem like it's on fire or broken. it's no problem if you drop your file on dropbox. And you an share file and folder across the internet using file synchronization. Another feature is keep track, back up of your file, no matter you accident edit your file, you can see the log file here. (เปิดหน้าของ dropbox ให้ดู) And the cool things that i love are multiple OS, big storage (you know for free user, it's start from 2 GB! and you can add 250 MB if you invite other to join Dropbox) and because it can use by multiple format, that mean you can sharing or access the resource anytime, everywhere or whatever if it connected to internet.

Here i'll show you that dropbox can use for any format; window, ubuntu, mac, this is on my smart phone and here is via Dropbox webpage if you didn't install the application.

As I said, Dropbox uses cloud computing to enable user to store and share. Then I wanna tell you the overall image of cloud? I can't tell you more detail about cloud computing, in fact Thee will present us about cloud computer next week. what does it mean?

You know? The concept of cloud computing fills a perpetual need of IT: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing.

Advantage:scalable, paid only when needed and can be used by any device with a connection to the net directly or by using client programs. actually it can use offline, but the resource is from your computer, in fact, it's on your computer. i'll tell you later how it's work!

Other application: In face, there are another service apart of Dropbox such as Ubuntu one, Box.net, Zumodrive and so on. you know some service and provide more space but I present you the Dropbox because it's the popular one and it seems to be the most stable service now.

How does it work?

- First when you install dropbox application on your computer, one directory on your computer is designated as the drobpox.

- Files placed in the Dropbox are automatically synchronize to cloud. Changes propagate to other machine in your Dropbox network from the cloud.

- Once files are completely synchronized, a green checkbox appears on the bottom of the file or directory icon.

We know that Drop box is a service to share and to share need the client to synchronize. I would say it's intelligent synchronization.

- when files change, only the binary diff is transferred.

- Files are compressed as they travel over the internet.

- If two people modify the same file on separate machines, the first submitter wins. and the second submitter's file is also synchronized.

Where are the files stored?

- If you have installed the Dropbox desktop application, your files are stored both on your computer (in your Dropbox folder) and on Dropbox's secure online servers.

- All files stored online by Dropbox are encrypted and kept securely on Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3) in multiple data Centers located across the United States.

What is Amazon Simple Storage Service? (Amazon S3)

Amazon S3 is storage for the Internet. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers.

Amazon S3 provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any developer access to the same highly scalable, reliable, secure, fast, inexpensive infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites. The service aims to maximize benefits of scale and to pass those benefits on to developers.

Dropbox can be used profitably for distributed evolutionary algorithms, without the need to acquire or set up complicated cloud or grid infrastructure; besides,

Using tools available in every classroom,lab, office or home and freely available over the internet with a good scaling behavior can be set up to perform heavy-duty evolutionary computation experiment.


Here is my presentation for the class: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B-Ls4RhAgiHeOWU4NTI2YzQtMzgyNS00MTRhLWIyZDItNGQ0YTA5OGRlMjcy&hl=en_US