Plugging into the “Cloud”- How Cloud Computing can enhance ICT penetration in Liberia
By: Darren Wilkins, MS, MBA, MIS
Several factors have been identified as barriers to ICT penetration in Liberia and most developing countries. The lack of capacity and the lack of infrastructure are two of the most frequently mentioned factors in discourses relating to ICT penetration in developing countries, especially in Liberia. I have been told – on several occasions – that the mean reason for Liberia’s slow pace toward a “digital revolution” is the lack of low cost, high-speed Internet/Telecommunications access. This basically refers to a connection to an underwater fiber optic cable (the controversial SAT3/WASC/SAFE submarine cable) which is located around the West and South coasts of Africa. Granted this is the main reason, what then are we doing in its absence (submarine connection) to prepare for the “digital revolution that will take place when we finally achieve a connection? Do we wait until we get connected before we start preparing? Or should we use the little resources that we currently have to prepare for the future? Are we going to continue saying: “Liberia is not ready yet” for the next 10 years?
Whenever I hear the statement, “Liberia is not ready for ICT yet”, I often argue that Liberia became ready from the day the first email was sent across its boarders into the global network. And of course, the Internet and technological advancements have further propelled Liberia’s readiness for the inevitable digital revolution that is soon to come. In fact Cloud Computing, which is the topic I have chosen to discuss today, is a quintessential technological advancement that negates any form of argument that claims the lack of capacity and infrastructure is the reason for Liberia’s slow progress toward ICT penetration. The problem, as I have come to surmise, is that Liberians often tend to underestimate our own capabilities; or could it be we are just too complacent with the status quo? I feel much better believing the former than the latter!
So, what is Cloud Computing? How can it be applied to or how can it benefit Liberia? In the following paragraphs I explore a relatively new computing paradigm which I believe can be applied in Liberia. The application of this form of computing to Liberia was initially explored by Mr. Kamara Watson Jr., another Liberian ICT professional. I chose to further expand on it in hopes that it will be embraced when knowledge of it is disseminated across the Liberian spectrum.
Basically, Cloud Computing is computing over the Internet using Web services and applications. It involves a lot of scalable and virtualized resources and everything is virtually provided as a service. It introduces new computing paradigms such as: Software as a service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and my favorite, Platform as a service (PaaS). Cloud Computing eliminates the need for a customer/user to spend resources on assets such as software and hardware. For example, if you open a small office, you would need capital to purchase computers, software licenses, etc. This can cost a lot and have a humongous impact on your capital investment. With Cloud Computing, you would not need to purchase software or a lot of hardware (servers, etc) to run your own ICT infrastructure. While you will need a few low cost hardware (computers or terminals), your entire ICT infrastructure will be provided by “the Cloud” (which is the data center of a provider), and be billed for usage, storage, security, and so on. This means your ICT needs will be provided as a service. You see Cloud Computing applies a model known as utility computing which parallels the model used by companies like the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) or COMIUM in which the customer is billed on a subscription basis.
Cloud Computing can be perceived in many ways depending on the individual. It can be perceived as an amalgam of Web-based applications, as the renaissance of the thin-client or centralized computing (used in UNIX computing), as Utility Computing (UC), as Parallel Computer (PC) and so on. To me, it is the future of computing! It is the new computing paradigm that will shape the digital revolution, not only in Liberia, but in Africa. Cloud Computing is the latest catchphrase in companies like Microsoft, IBM, Google, Amazon, and many other companies and has now become the new “revolution” in the IT industry.
What makes Cloud Computing ideal for Liberia is that it (the country) is still struggling to rebuild its infrastructure, lacks the resources (money and capacity), but is making efforts to garner global attention for economic development. Below I have inserted a diagram in which I use a hypothetical situation to describe how ALL geographical regions in Liberia will be able to ubiquitously compute by plugging into the “Cloud”. In the diagram, the cloud represents a “state-of-the-art data center to be erected in Monrovia (or any chosen location) which will house servers that can be accessed from every geographical area of Liberia. This will minimize, if not eliminate capital expenditure for stakeholders. It will also reduce storage footprint, the cost of power, and the number of required staff to run ICT infrastructures in the 15 counties. There will however, still be a need for other utilities which I presume are being explored or implemented.
Cloud Computing levels the playing field for small companies and countries to compete with bigger ones in terms of IT infrastructure and capacity. It allows the poor computer programmer who does not have a programming platform to use a “Platform as a Service (PaaS) such as Google App Engine to compete with programmers at large companies like IBM or Microsoft. It will also allow a student in Maryland County to be able to access online books or resources even though her county does not have an ICT infrastructure. The county health officer in Weasua or other rural areas will have direct access to the Ministry of Health’s database as well as to doctors at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center. These are some of the things “plugging into the Cloud” will do for Liberia.
As an indication of Cloud Computing’s impact on the future of computing, large companies have already begun making strides with this amazing technology. Microsoft, a giant software company, claims that for more than 10 years, millions of its clients have been using its Cloud-based services, which include Hosted Exchange, Outlook Web Access and Live Meeting, and Office communicator-a messenger service resembling Yahoo! Messenger. IBM and Canonical (developers of Ubuntu Linux) are introducing a new, flexible personal computing software package for netbooks and other thin client devices to help businesses in Africa bridge the digital divide. Apple Computers has also joined the bandwagon of Cloud Computing by launching its MobileMe service that can be used on the company’s iPhone device. Dell Computers has also joined the “Cloud party” and is involved in the creation of hyper-scale environments or private Clouds for firms. The list of companies involved with Cloud Computing keeps continues to grow exponentially.
Finally, the progress being made by the Liberian Electricity Corporation is unsurpassed. Hopefully, this progress will transcend the capital city into rural areas. On the other hand, the Liberian Telecommunications Corporation (LIBTELCO) has also made great achievements in its capacity as the country’s national operator. The recent implementation of CDMA2000 1xEVDO is a step up from the GSM technology that is currently being used by local mobile operators. CDMA is a technology initiated by Qualcomm to be used in North America. It is more secure and efficient than the GSM technology. By implementing this technology, LIBTELCO moved a step above ISPs in Liberia. LIBTELCO’s next move would be to create a fiber ring around the country which will connect to a landing point from one of the many submarine cables (hopefully the ACE instead of SAT3/WASC cable) running around the West African coast. This connection will lead to high-speed, low cost, and quality Internet connection which will enhance the implementation of the Cloud”. It will therefore galvanize ICT penetration in Liberia and expose the country’s economy to the global community. It is then that Liberians will experience the official beginning of the digital revolution in Liberia. And when we get there, there will be no turning back.
Filed under: ICT in developing countries, ICT in Liberia Tagged: | Plugging into the “Cloud”- How Cloud Computing can enhance ICT penetration in Liberia
Good Day Mr. Wilkins,
I’m missing the point you are trying to illustrate on your map. Can you please elaborate. Also the implementation of CDMA is a more efficent technology than GSM for Data Services, but is not more secure.
The real value of cloud computing is the ability of enterprise to take advantage of shared resources in a virtual environment, where by spending less on resources, that the enterprise would have had to build, finance and maintain.
We don’t need a fiber ring in Liberia today to take advantage of Could computing, all we need is connectivity and security for the end points such as laptop and mobile devices plus the ability to secure how the information is transmitted. Cloud computing is not a new concept, it’s simple rebranding of the old Main Frame concept, just in today’s age we have the advantage of a Graphical User Interface.
Howdy Omar (I hope you don’t mind me calling you by the first name).
Sorry for responding to your posting so late; I had posted this article way back in 2009 and have not returned to it until I got the notification. I have however written a updated article on the topic which is published in the Liberian Daily Observer online newspaper from an experiment done recently. Unfortunately, I could not divulge all of the information from the project in that article, since we are in the process of doing some work in Kingston and later in Port Au Prince (Later means next year).
To your concerns:
The map is not my best work but was intended to give Liberians (in Liberia) an idea of what I was trying to say; that all servers will be in the “CLOUD” and computing from every part of the country will be done through the “CLOUD”. I subsumed the implementation of a terrestrial fiber connection (backbone) to the CLOUD. I also subsumed a connection to a submarine fiber optic cable. The CLOUD would be a data center based in Monrovia (LIBTELCO) or an alternative location with hotspot(s) in neighboring countries. Of course, there are several other options that can work for Liberia with regard to the CLOUD. So, forgive me if I didn’t depict it as well as I wanted to explain it.
When I hear the CDMA versus GSM argument, I think of the argument between Windows and Linux. Many individuals are “apprehensive” about Linux because it is open source, hence, the perception that it is insecure. But as we all know, when configured properly, Linux is one of the most secure operating system today.
The issue of security in CDMA and GSM is not a new one. A fellow peer reviewer with the ACM (American Computing Machinery) once argued this topic with me. Do you think there is no encryption in CDMA? It is difficult, if not impossible, to pull CDMA signal out of the air in real-time and “crack” it. But it is possible to do this with GSM given the appropriate resources. I say both are secure although one is of a superior quality and has better security than the other; and I say it’s CDMA. These days are not like the past when we could sit in a Wal-Mart parking lot and listen to phone conversations or penetrate IT systems. Times have changed. You know, CDMA has a history that is attached to the military. In fact it started off as a way for the US Navy to communicate and transmit sensitive information. But please pardon me; I am really not into history.
I stated that Cloud Computing was a “Relatively New paradigm” which means it existed or something similar existed before. You were correct about it not being new. I say it is new in Africa, especially, in Liberia because I don’t remember it or anything being implemented there … of course I might be too young to have been around if it existed in Liberia.
I don’t believe that the current type of connectivity in Liberia will suffice for a CLOUD implementation; simply because connection to THE CLOUD is not only crucial but critical. You were right about the “real value” but how do you obtain it if you have trouble getting to it? Now, that does not mean that the CLOUD cannot be implemented under the present conditions; it can! But it will be very expensive using satellite based communication technologies. And that might further preclude us from achieving the very Universal Computing (UC) that I believe we aim for (I stand corrected).
Implementing cloud computing in Liberia with the current type of connectivity will be the worst decision ANY IT manager would. Here’s why: My most recent trip to Liberia was in January of this year. While there I tried downloading a PowerPoint presentation that I was to present to a group I was forming to represent the Open Source Initiative. It took almost 30 minutes to download that file; of course, this is “downstream”. Consider the CLOUD where all of your computing activities would take place, what do you think will happen?
In a recent experiment using a 56k connection and a broadband connection, I painfully discovered that the 56K connection greatly impacted my CLOUD implementation. Access to my instances in the CLOUD produced intermittent crashes. So I believe the connection type does matter if you subsume cost, efficiency, productivity, etc. If you install something that the users will struggle to use, you know exactly what’s going to happen. Yes, it can be implemented in Liberia at this time; NO, because users’ access will not be seamless considering all of the factors involved. Oh, by the way we’ve not talked about the impact of not having an INTERNET EXCHANGE yet!!!!
A close friend of mine is an engineer with one of the members of the ACE Consortium; he tells me this is Liberia’s best option for submarine Fiber optic connection. He did say that the RFS may not be as expected but they are targeting Q2 of 2012.
The security of the CLOUD is not necessarily or merely based on the type of connection. You can have a secure connection and still have a Cracker/Hacker penetrate your system. The software, if not developed with the best security practices, will be penetrated despite connection type. Remember, Applications are designed by one group, while the APIs are developed by another. (Sorry for diverting).
Sorry for such a long response and thanks for posting. I had long been seeking a medium where Liberian ICT can debate issues relating to ICT penetration in Liberia. Please feel free to contact me anytime so that we can discuss issues relating to ICT in Liberia.