BKCLAPAR.RVW   20091009

"Cloud Application Architectures", George Reese, 2009,
978-0-596-15636-7, U$29.99/C$29.99
%A   George Reese
%C   103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA   95472
%D   2009
%G   978-0-596-15636-7 0-596-15636-7
%I   O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
%O   U$29.99/C$29.99 707-829-0515 fax: 707-829-0104 nuts@ora.com
%O  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596156367/robsladesinterne
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596156367/robsladesinte-21
%O   http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596156367/robsladesin03-20
%O   Audience i- Tech 1 Writing 1 (see revfaq.htm for explanation)
%P   189 p.
%T   "Cloud Application Architectures"

The preface states that this book is intended to prepare your Web
applications to succeed in the cloud, although it hasn't said what the
cloud is, nor is the example used particularly clear about what goes,
or went, on.

Chapter one attempts to define cloud computing, but does so in a
highly promotional, and not particularly useful, manner.  If you can
use any browser, any operating system, and any Internet access
provider to use a service, that's cloud computing.  (Does this mean my
local library's online catalogue is a cloud?)  Later the material also
mentions pay-as-you-go services, as well as distributed storage and
processing.  A large section provides an overview of the AWS (Amazon
Web Services) system.  More detail on AWS is given in chapter two,
although the explanations are not very clear.  (This may be in part
because Reese does not fully understand some of them: his outline of
the use of public/private key pairs makes no sense unless Amazon
intends to allow a serious attack on the operations controlled by its
accounts.)  (It's fairly clear that this book was rushed to market in
order to take advantage of the current interest in cloud computing: so
fast that they forgot a number of the illustrative figures.)  Chapter
three provides some guidance in regard to calculating costs and
reliability: the examples are from AWS, but the formulae and process
are the same as for any information system.  The advice on preparing
your application for a scalable and distributed environment, in
chapter four, is confusing.  A wide range of technologies are
addressed, and there is so much hedging and backtracking that it is
very difficult to determine which suggestion the author actually
wishes to stress, in the end.  In terms of security, chapter five
suggests you encrypt your data, harden your applications, and then
describes some aspects of Amazon's operations.  Disaster recovery
appears to some to be inherent in cloud computing, but chapter six
notes that you still have to do all the same disaster planning work,
with the proviso that some things you want to do AWS won't let you. 
Chapter seven says you can buy more cloud as you need it.

This book provides relatively little in terms of architectural
guidance.  It does promote AWS at every turn, and describes some of
the functions and API (Application Programming Interface) calls for
that system.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 2009    BKCLAPAR.RVW   20091009