About this course: Cloud computing systems today, whether open-source or used inside companies, are built using a common set of core techniques, algorithms, and design philosophies – all centered around distributed systems. Learn about such fundamental distributed computing "concepts" for cloud computing. Some of these concepts include: clouds, MapReduce, key-value/NoSQL stores, classical distributed algorithms, widely-used distributed algorithms, scalability, trending areas, and much, much more! Know how these systems work from the inside out. Get your hands dirty using these concepts with provided homework exercises. In the programming assignments, implement some of these concepts in template code (programs) provided in the C++ programming language. Prior experience with C++ is required. The course also features interviews with leading researchers and managers, from both industry and academia.
Who is this class for: Who this class is for: This course is intended for students with similar backgrounds as junior or senior undergraduates in computer science. This course will teach you basic algorithmic and design concepts for distributed systems, as used in today’s cloud systems. Much of the course, including quizzes, is conceptual and not programming oriented. The programming assignment assumes some knowledge of C++ (if you have only Java experience, you should be able to pick up C++ quickly may suffice), and allow you to write distributed algorithms in an emulated distributed system on your own machine. To ensure you have the necessary prerequisites, you need to take the prerequisite quiz and achieve a high passing score (at least 90%, preferably 100%). Based on prior student experiences, the Linux/Unix environment may work better for the programming assignments than Windows. Who this class is NOT for: This course is NOT intended for those: (1) wishing to get a high level overview of cloud computing (you can use Wikipedia for that); (2) wishing to do detailed programming in a real cloud (the Cloud Capstone and Cloud Applications MOOCs provide you that); (3) who are averse to theoretical and algorithmic concepts; (4) with little or no prior programming experience in C++ or Java; (5) who expect to see industry-quality code in programming assignments (these are play programming assignments focused on allowing you to implement concepts you learn from lectures, and are not intended for immediate deployment); (6) those not familiar with setting up IDEs/compilers, etc., especially for C++; or (7) those who want to rush through lectures and/or videos and attempt quizzes in haste (quizzes are hard, so make sure you view lectures completely and comprehensively before attempting quizzes).
Taught by: Indranil Gupta, Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
| Basic Info | Course 1 of 6 in the Cloud Computing Specialization |
| Level | Beginner |
| Commitment | 5 weeks of study, 5 - 10 hours/week |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
- Reading: Orientation Overview
- Video: Introduction to Cloud Computing Concepts, Part 1
- Reading: Syllabus
- Reading: About the Discussion Forums
- Practice Quiz: Orientation Quiz
- Video: Orientation Towards Cloud Computing Concepts: Some Basic Computer Science Fundamentals
- Reading: Instructions for Taking the Prerequisite Quiz
- Practice Quiz: Prerequisite Quiz
- Discussion Prompt: Getting to Know Your Classmates
- Reading: Course Learning Community and Social Media
- Reading: Week 1 Overview
- Video: Week 1 Introduction
- Video: 1.1. Why Clouds?
- Video: 1.2. What is a Cloud?
- Video: 1.3. Introduction to Clouds: History
- Video: 1.4. Introduction to Clouds: What's New in Today's Clouds
- Video: 1.5. Introduction to Clouds: New Aspects of Clouds
- Video: 1.6. Introduction to Clouds: Economics of Clouds
- Video: 2.1. A cloud IS a distributed system
- Video: 2.2. What is a distributed system?
- Video: 3.1. MapReduce Paradigm
- Video: 3.2. MapReduce Examples
- Video: 3.3. MapReduce Scheduling
- Video: 3.4. MapReduce Fault-Tolerance
- Video: Interview with Sumeet Singh
- Reading: Homework 1 Instructions
- Discussion Prompt: Homework 1 Discussion
- Reading: Programming Assignment Instructions
- Reading: Week 2 Overview
- Video: Week 2 Introduction
- Video: 1.1. Multicast Problem
- Video: 1.2. The Gossip Protocol
- Video: 1.3. Gossip Analysis
- Video: 1.4. Gossip Implementations
- Video: 2.1. What is Group Membership List?
- Video: 2.2. Failure Detectors
- Video: 2.3. Gossip-Style Membership
- Video: 2.4. Which is the best failure detector?
- Video: 2.5. Another Probabilistic Failure Detector
- Video: 2.6. Dissemination and suspicion
- Video: 3.1. Grid Applications
- Video: 3.2. Grid Infrastucture
- Video: Interview with William Gropp
- Reading: Homework 2 Instructions
- Discussion Prompt: Homework 2 Discussion
- Reading: Week 3 Overview
- Video: Week 3 Introduction
- Video: 1. P2P Systems Introduction
- Video: 2. Napster
- Video: 3. Gnutella
- Video: 4. FastTrack and BitTorrent
- Video: 5. Chord
- Video: 6. Failures in Chord
- Video: 7. Pastry
- Video: 8. Kelips
- Video: Blue Waters Supercomputer
- Reading: Homework 3 Instructions
- Discussion Prompt: Homework 3 Discussion
- Reading: Week 4 Overview
- Video: Week 4 Introduction
- Video: 1.1. Why Key-Value/NOSQL?
- Video: 1.2. Cassandra
- Video: 1.3. The Mystery of X-The Cap Theorem
- Video: 1.4. The Consistency Spectrum
- Video: 1.5. HBase
- Video: 2.1. Introduction and Basics
- Video: 2.2. Cristian's Algorithm
- Video: 2.3. NTP
- Video: 2.4. Lamport Timestamps
- Video: 2.5. Vector Clocks
- Video: Interview with Marcos Aguilera
- Reading: Optional: Lamport Timestamps (Ukulele Version)
- Reading: Homework 4 Instructions
- Discussion Prompt: Homework 4 Discussion
- Reading: Week 5 Overview
- Video: Week 5 Introduction
- Video: 1.1. What is Global Snapshot?
- Video: 1.2. Global Snapshot Algorithm
- Video: 1.3. Consistent Cuts
- Video: 1.4. Safety and Liveness
- Video: 2.1. Multicast Ordering
- Video: 2.2. Implementing Multicast Ordering 1
- Video: 2.3. Implementing Multicast Ordering 2
- Video: 2.4. Reliable Multicast
- Video: 2.5. Virtual Synchrony
- Video: 3.1. The Consensus Problem
- Video: 3.2. Consensus In Synchronous Systems
- Video: 3.3. Paxos, Simply
- Video: 3.4. The FLP Proof [OPTIONAL]
- Video: Interview with Tushar Chandra
- Reading: Homework 5 Instructions
- Discussion Prompt: Homework 5 Discussion
- Video: Conclusion to Cloud Computing Concepts, Part 1
- Reading: Final Exam Instructions
- Discussion Prompt: Final Exam Discussion
- Discussion Prompt: Final Reflection
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|---|---|---|
| Access to course materials | Available | Available |
| Access to graded materials | Not available | Available |
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| Earn a shareable Course Certificate | Not available | Available |
Great Course, helped me to learn basic understanding of Cloud computing. I feel lot energized now, to talk to colleagues in discussion about Computing. Appreciate info in discussion groups helping solve or direction unsolved questions.
The course is very well laid out. Prof. Gupta has a very clear voice and is easy to follow. The tests at the end of each chapter are non trivial and really ensure you understood the concepts thoroughly. The course is fairly old (2012?), for a rapidly developing field like cloud computing, I imagine several portions of the course are probably out of date. I suggest the relevant portions of the course be updated periodically. Even if the course is not entirely revised, at a minimum add an extra section highlighting the new changes.
An acceptable course to those who want to have an insight to cloud computing.
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Very, very hard. But very informative too. I'v got many new knowledge