Cetrom IT: Cloud Computing Goes to Outer Space
NASA has announced that their Mars Exploration Rover Project has become the first space mission in the agency's history to use cloud computing services for daily mission operations.
- (1888PressRelease) November 09, 2010 - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena California, tasked with managing the project, indicated that their gained confidence in using cloud computing was based on successful experiences with other uses of the technology.
"This is a change to thinking about computer capacity and data storage as a commodity like electricity, or even the money in your bank account," said JPL's John Callas, rover project manager. "When we need more computing capacity, we don't need to install more servers if we can rent more capacity from the cloud for just the time we need it. This way we don't waste electricity and air conditioning with servers idling waiting to be used, and we don't have to worry about hardware maintenance and operating system obsolescence."
"The rover project is well suited for cloud computing," said Khawaja Shams, a JPL software engineer supporting the project. "It has a widespread user community acting collaboratively. Cloud enables us to deliver the data to each user from nearby locations for faster reaction time." Also, the unexpected longevity of the mission means the volume of data used has outgrown the systems originally planned for handling and sharing data, which makes the virtually limitless capacity of cloud computing attractive.
"NASA's decision to use cloud computing as the technology platform for this project makes sense in multiple areas. The ability to add scalable and redundant computing resources on demand, coupled with a swift path for the deployment is a huge advantage in supporting such a vital mission. Additionally, cloud computing gives the agency the ability to accurately scale project costs to the precise mission requirements, without the additional burden of lifecycle management for internal resources," said Chris Stark, Cetrom IT president and CEO. "I believe that NASA's successful use of cloud computing for this mission will open up additional opportunities for future missions and set a standard for other agencies to follow going forward, while also showing another excellent example of how cloud computing can be applicable to virtually any organization."
Cetrom Information Technology, Inc. is an industry leading Application Services Provider (ASP), delivering a full spectrum of "Cloud Computing" solutions with their hosted technology services platform for small and medium businesses. Cetrom offers Hosted Applications, otherwise known as "Software as a Service" (SaaS), for Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office, as well as many other software programs. In addition, they deliver scalable Managed Services options such as Network Monitoring, Disaster Recovery and Remote Data Back-Up. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, they have been recognized for their depth of industry knowledge, technical expertise and superior customer service ranking. Cetrom stands behind all their services with 24x7x365 Help Desk Support, 99.9% uptime guarantee.
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