Question Set #1

Due Monday
September 28, 2009

Please write at least several paragraphs or bulletpoints discussing the points advanced below and be prepared to discuss those if called upon to do so in class. Turn in a written copy of your answers at the beginning of class Monday, September 28.

Recently, the concept of "cloud services" has become quite trendy, with Amazon's S3 service becoming one of the most popular out there, in part due to its simple API for "cloud storage."

However, the API is less than system administrator-friendly, and sysadmin toolkits such as s3cmd have popped up to make the S3 service more usable. Pull down the package for s3cmd (it's written in Python) from the Sourceforge or browse it here.

Please detail in several paragraphs or bulletpoints your thoughts on s3cmd's
  1. Usability
  2. Efficiency
  3. Security