Facebook Meets the Virtualized Enterprise
Roger Curry, Cameron Kiddle, Nayden Markatchev, Rob Simmonds and Tingxi Tan
Grid Research Centre, University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
{curry,kiddlec,nayden,simmonds,txtan}@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
Martin Arlitt and Bruce Walker
HP Labs, Palo Alto, U.S.A.
{martin.arlitt,bruce.walker}@hp.com
Abstract
“Web 2.0” and “cloud computing” are revolutionizing
the way IT infrastructure is accessed and managed. Web
2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis and social networking
platforms provide Internet users with easier mechanisms to
produce Web content and to interact with each other. Cloud
computing technologies are aimed at running applications
as services over the Internet on a scalable infrastructure.
In this paper we explore the advantages of using Web 2.0
and cloud computing technologies in an enterprise setting
to provide employees with a comprehensive and transparent
environment for utilizing applications. To demonstrate the
effectiveness of this approach we have developed an envi-
ronment that uses a social networking platform to provide
access to a legacy application. The application is hosted on
an internal cloud computing infrastructure that adapts dy-
namically to user demands. Initial feedback suggests this
approach provides an improved user experience while sim-
plifying management and increasing effective utilization of
the underlying IT resources.
1. Introduction
The “Web 2.0” era has brought us technologies such
as blogs, wikis and social networking platforms. These
technologies provide users more feature rich environments,
make it easier for users to generate and share Web content,
and increase online social connectivity. The popularity of
social networking sites such as Facebook [7] is a clear indi-
cation of the perceived value of these technologies.
We believe that an improved user experience would also
be beneficial in an enterprise setting, as it would make tasks
more enjoyable and less time consuming. It would likely
also appeal to the new generation of enterprise employees,
who are intimately familiar with the Web 2.0 experience.
However, such technologies have not been widely
adopted in enterprises due to concerns over security, produc-
tivity and suitability in the workplace. In fact, many busi-
nesses block employees from using social networking sites
at the workplace [19].
The purpose of this paper is to (1) examine the lessons we
have learned from the Web 2.0 era, (2) articulate the needs
of enterprises and (3) recommend an IT model that merges
the two in an acceptable manner. We have implemented a
demonstrator to illustrate the potential benefits to enterprises
of the approach we are recommending.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Sec-
tion 2 describes lessons we have learned from the Web 2.0
era and Section 3 examines the IT requirements of enter-
prises. Our proposed IT model, which leverages the benefits
of Web 2.0 while addressing the needs of enterprises, is pre-
sented in Section 4. Section 5 introduces our demonstrator,
which highlights the utility of our approach. We conclude
our paper in Section 6, with a summary of our work and
future directions. A more detailed report of this work is pro-
vided in [6].
2. Lessons Learned from Web 2.0
In the past few years, the “Web 2.0” wave has provided
new, simple ways for users to create and share content or
applications, and communicate with one another. These ca-
pabilities have been enabled by tools such as blogs, wikis,
and social networking platforms. Our particular interest is
in online social networking. Sites such as Facebook [7] and
MySpace [15] have become extremely popular with Internet
users, in part because of the simplified interfaces they pro-
vide to desired capabilities. Simple yet powerful interfaces
are extremely valuable as they make the power of IT acces-
sible to almost everyone, with little or no training required.
The “Web 2.0” wave has also brought users “choice” of
applications. Among social networking sites, Facebook was
the first to release an application development platform in
May 2007. The Facebook Platform provides an API that al-
lows third party applications to be integrated into Facebook.
12th International IEEE Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference
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DOI 10.1109/EDOC.2008.19
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12th International IEEE Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference
1541-7719/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/EDOC.2008.19
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12th International IEEE Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference
1541-7719/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/EDOC.2008.19
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12th International IEEE Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference
1541-7719/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/EDOC.2008.19
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