Cloud Computing

I want to do my final year project with regards to cloud computing but has to be forensic based. Any idea's of a forensic app that would be beneficail using it in the cloud as amazon offer 17gb of ram and multiple 3ghz processor for the user

Thanks

A replacement for Oracle as a backend for FTK?
D

A replacement for Oracle as a backend for FTK?
D

…a recommendation I made to AD just a few weeks ago! They're thinking about it. Oracle was the major deal-killer for using FTK in my organization.

First of all thanks for your replies, Could you give me alittle more information regarding this topic please, it sounds interesting from googling the topic but not 100% about what your sayin

and thanks again for your previous replies

Does Oracle require a high powered computer to use?? Plz any help wud be appreciated

Does Oracle require a high powered computer to use?? Plz any help wud be appreciated

Not sure what you mean by "high-powered", but yes, Oracle is resource-intensive. You might Google something like "Oracle requirements" to see what's been said about it on various database forums.

Another thing is that although Oracle has a large installed base, fewer organizations will have people who can support, extend and tweak Oracle.

FTK could have been offered at a better price point if AD had gone with a proven public-license DB like mySQL. All around, it was a poor choice, IMHO.

However, I don't think any of this discussion about FTK really has anything to do with your project, if I understand your original post correctly.

I guess it would also depend upon the purpose of the forensic tool.

For example, if that tool were to investigate IIOC, would you want to be transferring large amounts of data potentially containing IIOC to the cloud? What are the legalities of doing so?

Thanks for ur responses but FTK min specs are basically 16gb ram(recommended), some mental processor ) like that is available in the cloud, is it worthwhile uploading this application within the cloud?? All responses greatly appreciated

Since some brought it up, Oracle performs much better with fewer resources on Linux. I have an Oracle Applications (Financials) demo system that I used to use for training and it ran on a Pentium Pro with 512 MBytes of RAM with no problems.

When FTK 2 came out, I gave up on the Windows install and installed the schema on a Linux system, instead, and have had no problems with DB performance.

As for using a cloud for forensic purposes, consider the following definition of cloud computing which appears here

http//www.ebizq.net/blogs/saasweek/2008/03/distinguishing_cloud_computing/

Cloud computing enables users and developers to utilize services without knowledge of, expertise with, nor control over the technology infrastructure that supports them.

It is the embolded part that would be of concern to me. How on earth would you be able to defend your work in court if you stated that you utilized the services of a cloud? What law firm or client would consent to having their data (possibly evidence), disseminated over a network of system that you can't even identify, let alone control?

As a matter of fact, if you want to turn your project around a bit, a more interesting question than whether you could (or should) use a cloud for forensics is how you would begin to do forensics on a cloud? What would be your approach to memory analysis if your process is distributed over machines selected, arbitrarily, according to the availability of resources?

Oracle performs much better with fewer resources on Linux

"Fewer resources" than what, please?

AD went with Oracle because they want to position FTK for large enterprise forensics, massive e-discovery projects, etc. Certainly, in those contexts, Oracle's optimizing engine might prove beneficial, but offers nothing to more "typical" (smaller scale) forensic investigations - which wouldn't even approach the performance or resource limitations of MySQL.

Of course, it might all be moot if anti-trust authorities in the US and Europe allow Oracle to get their mitts on mySQL.