Customer Reviews

Cloud Computing: Web-Based Applications That Change the Way You Work and Collaborate Online

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book mostly to serve as a reference and to help me avoid trolling the Internet in search of these resources. The writing is casual and "fluffy." The content is sparse and fragmented. It does little more than state the obvious for the applications it reviews. Sometimes the book covers one application in detail and almost ignores its comparable competitors. Most surprisingly, it never mentions several popular, key resources. The only real convenience the book provides is the names and URLs for the many obscure vendors with Internet-based applications. This book might be worthwhile at perhaps half the price.

In the information technology world, the clouds keep rolling in. But this is hardly a cause for concern. These "clouds" are not threatening thunderheads but Web-based applications and services, accessible from any Internet connection. For instance, many businesses today use Salesforce for customer relationship management and many people use Gmail. In either case, users access these applications through a Web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. However, the users' data (customer names, e-mails and so on) isn't stored on their computers but "in the cloud," the technical term - or geek-speak - for "somewhere on the Internet." Some applications target the consumer, some target the business user and some target the software developer. Whoever the targeted users are, cloud-based applications and similar technologies are the next big trend in IT and getAbstract assures you that Michael Miller's brief, basic and very enthusiastic guide will help you understand them even if you are a novice. Sometimes it's useful to have your head in the clouds.

This book is quite informative. It offers a basic review of cloud computing and associated web-based applications for layperson. I enjoy most reading about webtop (web-based destop) and event management. However, it is disappointing to find that most popular applications (e.g. Google Docs, Yahoo!, Windows Live, Apple MobileMe, Adobe Buzzword and Photoshop Express) are only briefly covered.

At the time of initially coming across this book I was experiencing problems finding materials on cloud computing and the potential changes that it was going to make to the typical persons current computing experience which as an IT professional I have a vested interest in. After reviewing its contents however, I initially dismissed it as being too consumer orientated when I was looking for something from a more corporate/enterprise viewpoint.

Upon taking another look, however - books on this topic only recently becoming more prevalent, the author's approachable writing style is welcome throughout and generally provides a sound summary of the benefits and considerations of the resources available from the associated providers from the perspective of individuals/community groups/corporations. The exception to this being in the chapters under the section entitled "Cloud Computing for Everyone" where their structure obviously copied from one to another with only the keyword being changed makes for somewhat tedious reading for anyone wishing to obtain a comprehensive understanding.

Of more significance (particularly in hindsight) under the chapter discussing social networking is a complete omission of twitter, which at the time of publication was already on its way to reaching critical mass.

As per the nature of the subject matter the landscape has and is rapidly changing but this book provides a useful starting point without getting bogged down in the technology itself.

I received the book after I was told it would not ship. It is what I ordered and am using in the class on Cloud computing.

Bought the book to finish a class presentation on the subject. The first two chapters were more than enough to help me with my project. The following chapters are more detailed and helpful if your extremely interested in this subject. Overall happy with the service, price, and quality of the book.

I was very disappointed in this book, and found it not worth the price I paid.

The product is listed as beginner-intermediate, it's at best 'beginner'.

The product states that it tells how what cloud computing is and how it works... it gives about the level of detail as the Wikipedia article on the former, and not at all on the latter.

I could go on, but my most salient observation is that the book really isn't about "cloud computing" so much as it's about a handful of useful services on the web. You could argue that it's a beginner Software As A Service book for end users / consumers of such services.

This book is a nice introduction to cloud based applications available currently. Without going into too much technical detail, it gives a quick overview on how one can choose a cloud service online for a particular task, say online data storage. Although, it is not a user manual for the cloud services it discussed, the screenshot and figures are helpful for a novice in this area. This book is not written for a reader looking for help in research. However, first few chapters do discuss some fundamentals of cloud computing.

I thought the book did a great job at explaining the strengths and weaknesses of cloud computing. It also had some great reviews of cloud apps. I loved it!

Unfortunately I was in a hurry for a book as I had a long bus ride and bought this book from the bookstore without carefully browsing through it first. I guess the lofty title "Cloud Computing" is what caught me as Amazon EC2, S3, and web services in general are becoming more prevalant these days. This book is completely trivial though and misses the whole point about explaining the architecture and details of cloud computing. It just glosses over this topic from an ignorant user's perspective of what web applications are. To the author: if 95% of your book is geared toward web applications and 5% of your book is geared towards cloud computing/web services why call the book "Cloud Computing" that's false advertisement. I have a strong background in Computer Science and I was deeply insulted by this book. Programmers and IT professionals, save your money.