Uses for your own private cloud.

The term cloud is just a new marketing term for a good old fashioned web server. In any event, there are quite a few things you can do with a web server at home or even in a small business.  everything can be accessed from any computer on the network. As long as the client computer has a web browser such as firefox or etc.  I predict the web server will be the next home appliance. If you want to program your own web site, w3schools.com and http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/ are a good place to start learning about web development. www.howtoforge.com has some excellent tutorials on setting up web servers.

Also consider reading:
http://ofps.oreilly.com/titles/9780596805784/
http://oreilly.com/catalog/0636920010067

If you want to install existing web applications, here is an introduction: http://www.instructables.com/id/Introduction-to-installing-web-apps/

Note:
All the screen shots are taken from an old Dell GX1 (Pentium II) which is considered outdated technology by today's standards but still works for us. This particular system is running Ubuntu 10.04 that was originally running 6.x that we have upgraded over several years. All the upgrades were done without having to redo the computer. We do back up the system at intervals with Clonezilla. Update: system has been upgraded to a PIII via a cpu swapout.

Cpu information :

processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 5
model name	: Pentium II (Deschutes)
stepping	: 2
cpu MHz		: 448.648

Update: I just upgraded that old machine to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in place (ie no reformatting or complete reloading of the os). I did have to redo the mail server set up though and update some of the web applications. Most of which I would have had to do anyway.

That server has since died. I replaced it with a g1 that was given to me. It has a fresh install of Ubuntu 10.04. Reinstalled most of the web apps with newer versions. It also cam with a Pentium two, but it the motherboard supports pentium III's, so the cpu was swapped out. Performance is much better now.

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor    : 0
vendor_id    : GenuineIntel
cpu family    : 6
model        : 7
model name    : Pentium III (Katmai)
stepping    : 2
cpu MHz        : 448.624
cache size    : 512 KB
fdiv_bug    : no
hlt_bug        : no
f00f_bug    : no
coma_bug    : no
fpu        : yes
fpu_exception    : yes
cpuid level    : 2
wp        : yes
flags        : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 mtrr pge mca cmov pse36 mmx fxsr sse up
bogomips    : 897.24
clflush size    : 32
cache_alignment    : 32
address sizes    : 36 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:

Step 1: Wanna blog?

You can set up the web server to be sort of a diary for all too see. You can also use it like a chalk board to leave messages for the family or business employees. You could use it for an on-line company newsletter (saving paper and printing costs. You can even use it for a scrapbook. Wordpress is probably one of the most popular.

Comments

[adamazing]

A good demonstration of what is possible with a personal web server, but it's not cloud computing. Nor is "Cloud computing" just a modern marketing term for "a webserver". Though I suppose, if you mean it's similar to using a Virtual Server instance provided by a third party, you're sort of right.

E.g. The economic advantage of cloud computing is that there is no Capital Expenditure, and you only pay for what you use. E.g. if you only need a PII 300MHz machine right now, that's what you pay for. If you then get slashdotted and your website becomes the next Facebook, you can (in theory) provision more resources to cope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing#Key_features

[Computothought]

I am concluding that you think cloud computing has to be hosted.in some way. For accounting purposes (aka GAAP) , if you have a lease for an extended time, that lease is usually considered a capital expenditure for record keeping purposes. Working on an instructable now of setting up a HAV web cluster using older systems. A model T is not a Corvette, but it is still a car and will get you there.

[Emonk]

I'm afraid you have not fully understood what cloud is. Your article, interesting as it is, is not cloud. Cloud is not just serving web pages, a few basic articles can be found on wikipedia, key features are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing#Key_features which I think is a reasonable description.

[Computothought]

With all due respect, all I have to do is open a port on the router so anyone could access that server and no one would know the difference between it and Amazon. I also know how to build high availability servers. Just have not chosen to use them here. I could easily make the server that way fairly quickly. Everything is scalable, even that small server. By the way Google started with one pentium II and grew from there.

[uthus]

I've run an Apache web server for years. When the wife was deployed to Iraq, I set up pages for other soldiers' family members to view pictures, news letters, etc. It was pretty small scale, but Time Warner did not like the fact that I had several GB of traffic during any given month. (Services were not against the EULA at the time.) They eventually throttled me. I've written several web applications for my own use in php and perl. It's fantastic what you can do with a *nix box. I think the one that I was using at the time of the deployment was a P-233.

[Computothought]

Thanx for the comment. Our web server is internal only though it does access the net. Sometimes if you use another port than say 80 you can do a bit more. I know a lot of people who use port 8080 via http://yourwebsite.???:8080. Of course you can have the router translate that port to your local port 80 on the web server..

Ii is good that you do programming, The more you you know.... Yes, I have done a bit of php and cgi myself. Borrowed a few open source javascript apps from the web also. My big thing now is letting the web server control home automation devices. Freebasic works real well with this and can even push static data to pages.

Trying to get into bsd a little bit. After being an mswindows admin for over 10 years, I could not get away from Microsoft products fast enough at home. Your preaching to the choir about what 'nix can do. 'Nix rules.

Of course you should be able to load all these apps on most any platform that supports Apache or the like. Might work with IIs, but I would not use it. Ngnx and lightttpd have their place also.

[Computothought]

Thank you for your comment. Having been in computing since the days of punch cards, I think I can pretty much judge what something is or is not. Funny, Larry Ellison of Oracle (no small enterprise) agrees with me in my view. He will tell you the same thing. in fact he goes one step further and says that Cloud computing is just good old client server computing. Whether a web site uses a virtual machine, a HA cluster server system, or even a single cpu system the result is the same. If you completely read the article you cited, that would be clear. The user never knows the difference. Ironically Google started off with pentium II computers. Although they have added services, it is still pretty much the same. We could add a second machine and very easily turn our web site in to one that was being used like a HA cluster. It is just a matter of scaling, but still the result is the same. It disappoints me greatly that you want to denigrate our set up. You do not always need a sledgehammer to do what a hammer can do. One of the reasons a lot of dotcom companies went broke. Wikipedia is not always right. I stand behind my comments. Been there Done that.