Customer Reviews

Cloud Computing: Implementation, Management, and Security

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Even for an "executive overview," this volume is exceptionally light on useful content. To make up for the book's lack of substance, the authors apparently felt compelled to include tons of filler. For example, the first thirty pages are an overview of the development of computing -- including a bunch of fuzzy, low-res B&W photos of the Eniac, the Harvard Mark I computer, an Intel 4004 chip, Tim Berners-Lee's first web server, etc. (Most of these images are either quarter- or half-page size, so they serve primarily to take up space.) Later in the book, there's a 28-page chapter explaining how to download and install Sun virtualization components; this includes step-by-step instructions and more grainy images of each panel in the installation wizard. Mixed in with all this fluff, there are a few shallow discussions of network architecture, IPV6, cloud vendors and technologies, and security. The book finishes off with a chapter on mobile computing that consists primarily of a discussion of what smartphones are (perhaps targeted at people who've been in a coma for the last decade), and the now-familiar grainy, low-res half-page images of several vendors' phones.

There are much better overview books available (Rhoton's book on cloud computing comes to mind). The real question about this book is, why was it ever published? What editor at CRC Press read the authors' draft and thought it was worth printing in quantity?

I weep for the trees that died to produce this thing...

While I am not inclined to agree with the comments made by RedmondGeek, I certainly respect his right to make those very hurtful and inaccurate statements. Given the fact that this book has been in several prints and is published in many languages, it is obvious that not everyone agrees with his opinion. As the author, I wanted to see why RedmondGeek felt the way he did so i took a look at his profile and discovered that there are very few positive things said at all by this reviewer about any material he has reviewed. Furthermore, the parts of the book he mentioned liking the least in his review are the very parts most often praised by others when this topic and book have been discussed by my co-author or myself at dozens of trade shows, symposiums, and conferences. Given an abject misunderstanding of the both purpose and the evolution of the computing platform and the practice of security altogether, I would hope he takes the time to re-read and make constructive comment or learn that because something is not written as he felt it should be, trashing it accomplishes very little and serves no purpose. I cannot wait to review his book at some point in the future and promise to be more objective than his treatment of (many) others.