What are the implications of "Cloud Computing"?

[rasputin1963]

"Cloud Computing" must be the hottest computer buzzword this summer. The idea being that all the stuff you used to store on your local hard-drive may now be uploaded to a storage site online, either free-of-charge or for a fee. The advantage being that your "stuff" may now be available on any computer, around the world.

 

I can't think of why anyone would want to do this, really. Doesn't it imply a total loss of what (little) privacy computer users have come to expect?

 

Surely people working on secret or confidential or "proprietary" developments wouldn't want to do this?

 

Is this the future of personal computing? In future will all software and documents be available only online?

[veracohr]

That's not cloud computing, that's cloud storage.

 

If you do your homework and decide on the right cloud storage service, it can be very good. It's secure, because even if your entire house (including computer and external storage) is hit by a bolt of lightning, you can later connect your new computer with the online storage and retrieve all your files.

 

Seriously, do your homework. There are cloud storage services that encrypt your data before it even gets to the off-site servers.

 

The extent of privacy depends entirely on the company providing the service and the particulars of their service.

[UstadKhanAli]

It seems like it would take a reeeeeally long time to upload stuff if you are using your computer for audio or video if we are talking about cloud storage.

 

For cloud computing, I won't comment on that until I learn more. Which I should probably also do with my comment about cloud storage...

[SuperMonkey]

I use it for collaborations with guys I work with on various projects. But it's really at their insistence. I don't care for stuff I create being held on someone else's server. It just makes me uneasy. I guess even with email attachments that's the case, though. So maybe I'm being irrational.

[UstadKhanAli]

In a way, it's sort of like how my father used to work on computer mainframes, isn't it? Everything networked, stored on the big computer?

[elsongs]

There are things that you would prefer to have in the cloud, and other things you need to store on personal storage media. We already use elements of this "cloud" when we watch a YouTube video. Both the media player and video files exist online. The whole "cloud" trend just standardizes things to an extent. I don't think personal storage media will ever be obsolete, but we would definitely be less reliant on it. Or rather, the capacity of a storage media would be maximized for personal data since the data for apps and other types of files would exist in the cloud.

[MikeRivers]

Implications? You can lose everything you've ever saved in the cloud if the "cloud company" goes out of business. Do you ever use on-line file hosting services? How many of those are still active? I only use them for short term storage when I want to send someone a file that's too big to e-mail, but neary every one I've used (along with the files I've uploaded) has disappeared after about 3 years.

 

The other thing that cloud computing is supposed to bring us is that we need not load applications on our own computers, we can use those in the cloud. So you want to work on an article you're writing in Word, you try to start WordCloud, and it doesn't open because something is down. Or you find that they've upgraded to a newer version and you have to do some things differently.

 

Cloud computing is for people who can manage their own clouds (like large corporations) or for people who have only minimal and non-critical computing needs or are able to have a "cloudless" backup method.

[Coaster]

one thing to be aware of are which parts of the patriot act and certain executive orders that give access to certain federal parties "allowing" them to access any part of your information in the cloud. they already do this with your email. i wouldnt feel to secure with the encryption either, it wouldnt surprise me if they can already decrypt most anything (even 128bit and higher) or simply demand the key.

 

dont take my word for it. look into it yourself. i will not be using any sort of cloud computing, nor do i send any private information via email.

[Ernest Buckley]

one thing to be aware of are which parts of the patriot act and certain executive orders that give access to certain federal parties "allowing" them to access any part of your information in the cloud. they already do this with your email. i wouldnt feel to secure with the encryption either, it wouldnt surprise me if they can already decrypt most anything (even 128bit and higher) or simply demand the key. dont take my word for it. look into it yourself. i will not be using any sort of cloud computing, nor do i send any private information via email.

 

Well Coaster, I would imagine that "they" already know more about you than you ever could have wished or imagined. Cloud or no cloud... As far as I`m concerned, I have nothing to hide so "they" can look into all my emails and HDs all day and night... as long as they don`t touch my millions, we`re ok.

[WRGKMC]

Cloud computing is a definate viable term.

Its web browser networking vs client server based.

 

Online storage backup may be part of it but its mainly browser based centralized access to anyones network

through any of their mobile devices. I dont remember all the details. To me its just old crap wrapped up in a new package.

Its come down to consumer levels so they gave it a new name.

I have several programs I run at work I run on a corporate level including oracle that are browser based.

Personally I think browser based access really blows for productivity because of the time lag involved.

A direct connection is always better but the method of accessing data saves big bucks for companies and is fairly secure.

 

Theres really nothing new there though, most companies have been using this type of access for over a decade now.

Lately its gotten some new sales pitches for consumers, but its still just a software manufacturer trying to hook users into another yearly subscription

for an expensive service. Proplem is when these services become popular the servers bog down so bad the service useless.

In the mean time you're locked into a years contract paying for a crappy access.

[Jeff da Weasel]

I've been using cloud computing for over five years. It has tremendous benefits for group-based work collaboration.

 

Like anything else, the key is to use it where it makes sense, and not use it where it doesn't. This discussion reminds me of people who freak out about people seeing stuff they put up on Facebook. If it's that private and important, don't {censored}ing put it there.

[UstadKhanAli]

EgZAKly.

[Jimbroni]

I thought cloud computing is nothing more than a generic term to describe the difference between storing data in a file structure vs a big clump "cloud". The idea being that modern search engines can easily locate your data in the cloud quickly will render file folder storage method obsolete.

 

It works great for large databases of info or photo storage.

 

But maybe I'm out to lunch.

 

Implications, I wouldn't put any personal info that I didn't want shared in the cloud. Because once its there it there. A bunch of computers will store it with redunancy. Its not going away, there will always be a trace or a backup somewhere. The concept of paid online storage is not samething at all, afaik.

[rasputin1963]

This discussion reminds me of people who freak out about people seeing stuff they put up on Facebook. If it's that private and important, don't {censored}ing put it there.

 

 

I put the most shockingly personal information up on my FACEBOOK page. I just don't give a {censored}.

[E-money]

Cloud computing at it's most basic level is taking something currently local and moving it elsewhere. Instead of a local mailserver, customers share a hosted exchange server or a hosted SharePoint server. Reputable cloud providers are far more secure than the average local area network of most businesses. Many of the good cloud providers have triple redundant SAS70 certified data centers that are able to withstand a class F3 tornado.

Where the product really shines is virtualization of applications. Instead of having to buy and maintain expensive hardware and infrastructure, the customer can pay a monthly fee to have line of business applications hosted and accessed in the cloud via Citrix ICA, and make it securely accessible from any Internet connection. I've seen situations where graphically intense Auto CAD applications run smoother in the cloud than they run locally. Virtual desktops allow businesses to run all of their applications via the cloud and can be locked down so that end-users can use just about any Internet capable computer, but they're forced to save everything to the cloud instead of the local PC.

 

 

In a way, it's sort of like how my father used to work on computer mainframes, isn't it? Everything networked, stored on the big computer?

 

 

Correct, it's kind of a return to an earlier paradigm.

 

 

Cloud computing is for people who can manage their own clouds (like large corporations) or for people who have only minimal and non-critical computing needs or are able to have a "cloudless" backup method.

 

 

With respect, I disagree. Cloud computing will be huge over the next 10-20 years as storage gets bigger, bandwidths get better, and budgets get smaller.

[144dB]

E-money hit the nail on the head... I'm not an I.T. professional, but my work overlaps that field so I'm knee-deep in a lot of I.T. trends.

 

From a corporate standpoint, it's very similar to mainframe/terminal computing. Instead of loading and maintaining hundreds or thousands of software installations (and software licenses), everything is maintained on a server, and the users access the server through simple clients. If a software patch needs to be installed, it's installed once on the server (as opposed to thousands of times for all clients). If a user needs access to a new application, it's a matter of adding privileges to his or her profile, as opposed to distributing and installing more software. There are probably hardware advantages as well, as the clients don't need the storage capacity of traditional computing. And finally, a clever cloud setup can minimize software licenses. Instead of buying thousands of end-user licenses for all clients (some of which may never be used), the cloud server can dynamically allocate licenses as needed, and reduce the total number of licenses.

 

That's the corporate environment... Now consider it from the consumer side.

 

As bandwidth increases, I could see a day where software resides on a remote server as opposed to your local computer. Instead of buying a Pro Tools software package (for example), you would simply subscribe. Maybe it becomes an annual fee, or perhaps it would be charged by the minute. But it gives the vendor the ability to update their software more easily (and monitor the features that are really used), and it clamps down on copy protection. It sounds far fetched, but I really don't think it's too far off.

 

Now take it one step further...

 

Today you can buy a compact disc, a DVD, or simply buy an MP3 or download a video through Netflix, etc. As far as I can tell, downloadable media is taking over. It's probably a bigger trend with younger people, but that's the future. I can foresee a day in the not too distant future where physical media for music disappears, and you simply subscribe to access the songs and artists you like. There is no download, just live streaming playback. There are no discs to press, and more important, there are fewer concerns with copy protection.

 

That's more than cloud computing, but I really think the next ten years are going to bring about innovations and changes that go far beyond what people consider to be possible.

[nat whilk II]

It's just the old trade-off between economies of scale vs. customized, local control. Cloud computing I thought just meant letting some other computer do some CPU processing for you. There is a ton of idle processing power out there - here, let me crunch some of those numbers for you....

 

People are looking for some sort of 100% safe way to compute in the modern world, and it ain't going to happen. Everyone is a potential victim in public computing no different than every house in a neighborhood is a potential target for burglars. You can improve your odds of staying safe with common sense and taking a little time and trouble to learn how to reduce your risk - don't take your computer for a walk after midnight in a dark alley!! Like this gorgeous young female dummy that routinely jogs in our neighborhood, chattering away on a blackberry, close to midnight, alone...

 

"Ah, they'll get to your computer and get your all your information if they want to bad enough so I don't bother with all those paranoid machinations to avoid hackers" -is the big tatoo that says "LAZEEEEEEE".

 

nat whilk ii

[MikeRivers]

 

I thought cloud computing is nothing more than a generic term to describe the difference between storing data in a file structure vs a big clump "cloud". The idea being that modern search engines can easily locate your data in the cloud quickly will render file folder storage method obsolete.

 

 

It's not just about data storage and access. You can run applications that are "in the cloud" so you don't have to install them on your computer. This makes "no disk drive" computers more (technically) practical. But will Cubase or Logic or Sonar be "in the cloud?" Maybe. Stranger things have happened.

[Hard Truth]

Although it has advantages in many situations, I'm very wary of this fad. It sounds too much like going back to dumb terminals and big centralized mainframes, which can limit flexibility and creativity. It means more corporate control over what we can do and what we pay. For example they might force us to pay a fee every time we use an application. In addition the performance of apps could vary depending on how fast the internet is running in that area at the time. My limited experience with online apps is that they are very clunky and unresponsive. I am also concerned about the loss of privacy.

[blue2blue]

 

Thanks to Phil Hartfield for this graphic (from a public post on Google Plus)

 

I hadn't seen the Weasly One's post until I looked 'up' in the middle of posting this. Me and Jeff do much of our work on the web -- though not necessarily all in the cloud.

 

 

Cloud storage and cloud computing will increasingly be a fact of life. While I still create plenty of so-called static web pages for clients (which means I develop the content more or less on the desktop and then upload it to the web), back in 2004, I took my first web database driven e-commerce client -- I guess I should call that cloud-commerce, eh?

 

Of course, I still developed the code that would control and direct the database interactions on my desktop -- but that code allowed my clients to add and remove content from the virtual catalog component of their site without intervention from me and, of course, allowed their customers to shop and manage their own transactions.

 

Naturally, we're all pretty familiar with the e-commerce model that began developing in the mid and late 90s with the rise of large online retailers who needed methods of managing their online catalogs that didn't rely on coders creating a separate page for each item. (Indeed, the e-commerce client I took on back in 2004 had had such a system, with hundreds of items 'locked' to the 'hard-code' of individual web pages. It had become a nightmare to maintain, as you might imagine.)

 

Two developments signaled an evolutionary trend that would eventually allow just plain folks to develop content in the cloud -- although, of course, back in the late 90s, the coders and geeks who developed and implemented the bright new ideas of the web had little use for the buzz-word factories of the marketing departments and PR flacks.

 

The first of those were social or community websites that encouraged users to contribute their own content. In fact, the social aspect of the internet was one of the first tends to evolve as the internet increasingly connected computers in different locations, starting when the first two nodes were connected on September 29, 1969, forming ARPANET.

 

At first the evolving Internet was the province of academic and government.

 

But with the rise of personal computers and transmission of data over phone lines (which itself had its roots in the wire photo -- first successfully accomplished in 1921 by Western Union), new, less formal collaborative and social forms developed in the form of message lists and then user interfaces that wrapped around simple group messaging, presenting those messages in formats soon dubbed bulletin boards. [Hello, vBulletin! ]

 

For a long time, of course, limited by early technologies and bandwidth restrictions of voice telephone lines appropriated for data transmission via modems that translated ones and zeros into blips and bleeps.

 

The public internet as we know it more or less began in 1988-89, but online communities like the old Compuserve had existed for many years by then, the parent company founded in 1969 as Compu-Serv Network, Inc. The web interconnection system using the internet backbone was developed in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee. Over the next years, web browsers evolved rapidly, adding the capability of incorporating image and other multimedia content early on -- but bandwidth restrictions usually kept images low resolution and tiny for some years.

 

Still, the ability to create more than simple web content was limited for internet end-users, unless they were willing to become coders. But the ability granted by early community sites to upload images and later audio files were important milestones.

 

One of the most revolutionary sites of the 90s, in many ways, was the original Mp3.com, which used the sort of data-driven interfaces originally growing out of early community sites to allow musicians to upload their work as well as to create and restyle their own individual web pages hosted within the site. One of the most popular features of Mp3.com was its conjoining of a basic bulletin board with the content pages, forming a set of community forums that was used for self-promotion as well as music discussions -- and a whole lot of socializing -- and, of course, as the Mp3.com veterans among us here at HC probably well remember, lots of flame wars.

 

The other cloud precursor was blogging software.

 

Blogs (web logs) had been around since early in the 90s, originally conceived as a way of pointing others to interesting content on the evolving web. But for much of the 90s, they were the province of those who had enough of a grasp of web coding to create their own static (hard-coded) web pages. Conventions evolved rapidly, including chronological internal linking systems, at first simply links to previous entries, typically at the bottom of each new entry.

 

But it didn't take long for bloggers to realize that there must be a good way of automating and standardizing the conventions of their individual blogs.

 

The first blogging softwares were desktop applications, basically special purpose web editors that allowed simple automation of format and linking. But as online database technologies rapidly matured, the merits of taking that content creation up onto the web itself, quickly became apparent.

 

With increasingly user friendly user interfaces, blogging took off. Of course, much of the content was standard Me2 Generation stuff, what cute thing my cat did today, idle thoughts, and, of course political rants -- but the original purpose of blogs -- pointing to other content, thrived as well.

 

In the 2000s, we saw a conjoining of social/community sites with blog features and content, forming the nascent social media scene.

 

Once the desktop (or laptop -- and now smartphone) became merely a portal to the web (a thin client in geek speak) instead of the engine of content which would then be uploaded -- we were pretty much dealing with the cloud.

 

So online content creation and online storage of that content -- as well as other data -- have been around for a pretty long time.

 

But it took some marketing guy -- just who is subject to fairly intense debate -- to come up with a buzz phrase name that would stick. Probably the earliest use goes back to 1997, when NetCentric attempted to trademark the phrase

[UstadKhanAli]

You'll see this happen first in businesses, when they replace old-style towers with smaller computers that make less noise and draw less power. It will essentially go back to the terminal model, with interconnectivity to a much bigger, centralized "brain."

 

[Jeff da Weasel]

I just don't give a {censored}.

 

And that's fine! I post all manner of silly crap on Facebook that might embarrass me if I were someone who got embarrassed about said things.

 

Cloud computing has a distinct value, but the thing you all have to remember: it's not an all-or-nothing concept. Where it makes sense to use the cloud, use it. Where it doesn't, don't.

[Beck]

Damn I wish it would rain!

[Mark L]

I put the most shockingly personal information up on my FACEBOOK page. I just don't give a {censored}.

 

You should run for president

 

I'd vote for you

[Anderton]

One big-league EMP, and poof! Cloud gone.

 

But seriously...with all the talk about "cyber-warfare," it wouldn't surprise me if when push came to shove, one country would disable another country's data infrastructure with an EMP.

 

But another issue is solar flares. In geological time, our use of power grids, satellites, etc. is not even a millisecond. Check out this description of what happened during a solar storm in 1859 (quoted from www.solarstorms.org, and note this is not an isolated incident from the days of telegraphy):

 

August 28 - September 2, 1859 - American telegraphists had only a short time to puzzle over atmospheric electricity on their 1000-mile lines when in 1859, the Great Auroras of August 28 and September 4 blazed forth and lit up the skies of nearly every major city on the planet. It was one of the most remarkable displays ever seen in the United States up until that time. These aurora were so exceptional that the American Journal of Science and Arts published no fewer than 158 accounts from around the world describing what the display looked like, the telegraphic disruptions they produced, and assorted theoretical speculations. Normal business transactions requiring telegraphic exchanges were completely shut down in the major world capitals. In France, telegraphic connections were disrupted as sparks literally flew from the long transmission lines. There were even some near-electrocutions. In one instance, Fredrick Royce a telegraph operator in Washington D.C reported that, "During the auroral display, I was calling Richmond, and had one hand on the iron plate. Happening to lean towards the sounder, which is against the wall, my forehead grazed a ground wire. Immediately I received a very severe electric shock, which stunned me for an instant. An old man who was sitting facing me, and but a few feet distant, said he saw a spark of fire jump from my forehead to the shoulder. "

 

So y'think that would fry pretty much any modems or DSLs? How would that affect towers? They didn't have satellites back then, but if they did, wouldn't they have been pretty much trashed?

 

I think it's very important to remember that the veneer of "civilization" is much thinner and more vulnerable than we would like to think. Cosmological events of huge import have happened in the past, and will happen in the future. Just a few months ago, planes flying the polar route had to be re-routed because of a major solar storm. But "major" doesn't mean "biggest possible," and it's entirely conceivable that a somewhat larger storm could have a huge effect on all communications.

 

Sure, I store stuff in the clouds...but I save it to DVD-ROM, too