Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2013 June 4

= June 4 =

What's the difference between "Traditional IT Infrastructure" and Private Cloud?
Page 2 (16 of the PDF) of Introducing Windows Server 2012, in the section "Making the Transition" has a bulleted list of the bad things such as limited capacity due to physical limitations, availability limited by budget because of hardware, network connectivity, and storage resources, poor agility because of the need to deploy and configure new workloads, and more. Then in the "Private Cloud" section on page 3 and 4(17 and 18 of the PDF), though they mention the higher upfront costs of a private cloud, they don't mention the same capacity limitations. What's the difference between a company-owned traditional IT infrastructure and a private cloud? 75.75.42.89 (talk) 03:35, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

The word 'cloud' alone guarantees you nothing in particular, so compare the actual enumerated features; and if they aren’t enumerated, you’d do well to assume you get nothing extra at all. ¦ Reisio (talk) 06:46, 4 June 2013 (UTC)
 * All 'cloud' means (not that there is any body whatsoever to guarantee that any particular provider will be following this description [short of it being in their fine print]), is that the hardware is abstracted. The word as we use it today is somewhat new, but the idea is not, and even before people were excited about abstracted hardware, all the benefits that abstracted hardware can potentially get you (redundancy, location-based efficiency, greater ease of maintenance, coordinated processing, etc.) could already be had via what might be considered more 'traditional' approaches.
 * Our own entry at Private cloud is not very positive about the idea. The vibes of private cloud are that someone else is doing IT work for you and is assuming certain risks but your data are still secure. The original idea of 'cloud' was that you could rapidly add and remove capacity as needed, so you could handle fluctuating workloads. Read the fine print to be sure of what you're getting. EdJohnston (talk) 17:15, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

Does anyone recognize what this old laptop is?
Does anyone recognize what the old laptop is on the left? I'm trying to figure out what it is and when it was made. A friend sent me a link to this with the subject "What a difference 25 years makes" but it looks newer to me than 25 years. Maybe 15 years? Oh, and where's the keyboard? http://i.imgur.com/uK5vrBq.jpg A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 16:51, 4 June 2013 (UTC)


 * Walkmac -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 16:56, 4 June 2013 (UTC)


 * Wow. That was incredibly quick turn around. You're getting a barnstar for that!  A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 17:12, 4 June 2013 (UTC)


 * I did a Google reverse-image search on your image, which found several stories (all very recent), of which I think the cnet one is the progenitor. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 19:47, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

what do need to know to understand operative systems?
Not as a user, or a developer of apps for an OS, but I want to know about the technical part of developing it, enhancing it or simply understanding it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.76.228.13 (talk) 17:13, 4 June 2013 (UTC)
 * If by "operative systems" you mean Operating systems, you can start by reading that article. Looie496 (talk) 17:41, 4 June 2013 (UTC)


 * I highly recommend the dinosaur book. (Operating System Concepts, Silberschatz et al.)  Everyone I know who programs operating systems has one or more editions on their shelf.  (And have read them).  Nimur (talk) 19:37, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I mean operating system, and also thanks for the book indication. I indeed want to know about the scientific/mathematical basis of why things are the way they are. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.158.39.241 (talk) 19:47, 4 June 2013 (UTC)