Intro
A few days ago, I get a call from an old friend of mine who I haven't heard from in about ten years.
A few days ago, I get a call from an old friend of mine who I haven't heard from in about ten years.
"Hey", he says, "My boss called me a few days ago and said that everything is moving to the Cloud. What the hell does that mean?".
The first words out of my mouth was, "You've had my number for ten years and this is the reason why you call me?"
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The fear of the cloud is becoming more common. Every time I open the news paper, magazines, on-line journals and blogs -- someone is talking about the cloud (and new computing devices such as smart phones and Chromebooks) and why everything is moving towards it. It is strange, as a young boy, I would lay down on a hillside and look at the clouds, but not think they were taking over anytime soon. Now, everywhere I go the headlines read, "The clouds are coming", "The clouds are coming". But behind large white pillows of air floating across the sky, should people really be worried about the cloud? The next sections will talk about the "5 W's" of the cloud along with usual "H", or How Cloud Computing will either complicate your life or set you free from the PC paradigm.
What
What is Cloud Computing? Simply put, when you are on the internet, you are consuming information (written words) on web pages that are at a certain address on the internet. Like my friend above, he had a question about cloud computing, found my number in the back of the address book, and gave me a call. So, instead of posting information for everyone to see on a web page, he was able to call me and provide a specific message - like an e-mail.
When
So, if we look to the recent past, the late 1950's as school children watched "Leave it to Beaver" on black and white television sets, there were a few engineering folks from the military and education sectors who had a great concept of sharing information about projects and lectures over this electronic network where you can post web-pages and write e-mail. In order to process pages and e-mail, you need allot of computing power, or and an infrastructure to support it, much like there are a bunch of network switches and connections so my friend can give me a call. The computing power was centralized in a single place to provide the workhorse needed to send the e-mails and read the web pages. This model worked for a while and the DARPANET grew (DARPANET was the official name of the network between the military and educational institutions) by leaps and bounds. New web-pages showed off more content for people to read and e-mails started to replace inter-office memos. New capabilities were added to the Internet under the umbrella of collaboration or "File sharing" and "Bulletin Boards". But ... we're not here to provide the history of modern computers ... let's stick with the cloud.
How does this affect me?
The plus side of a centralized system is the pooling together of limited resources into one area to execute programs. In the 1950's, because the infrastructure was thatched together with copper wire and duct tape, you could not send large amounts of information between computers. Having a centralized structure meant you pulled together your resources across a single network. Having a single network maks it easier to: 1) send materials to another use on the system (such as e-mail), 2) find materials which were created by you or someone else, and 3) share the limited processing power available. Having a central network means that the individual user could not customize its configuration or have to learn the computer "geek speak" so many folks utter today.
One of the problems of the centralized system was resourcing. If two or more people ran programs that taxes a systems resources, then the whole network would slow down. Also, there were problems with security, unless the system administrator locked down a set of directories just for you, anyone could access your files. Let's talk about the people aspect for a minute. Unless you are happy with the computer out of the box, there was no way to augment the services provided over the centralized network with additional hardware and software. Usually, there are additional costs associated with new hardware of software configuration changes. Every time you change the configuration of the system, you might introduce new problems. Also, companies can amend their end-user agreements to "mine" the data you are putting into the centralized cloud for advertising purposes. Once the data leaves your hands, you are putting it on the cloud provider's network ... so please look at the end-user agreements to see what right you have to your own data!
Where
Where is the cloud? If you are reading this blog page, you might be on the Internet. The resources that propel the Internet do not reside on your local desktop, but somewhere ... out there ... right beyond your finger tips. The real question boils down to: who pays for the cloud? Right now, everyone access services over the cloud through an internet browser -- for free. Some sites with a higher grade of content are beginning to charge for the content that you are consuming. Remember, there is no "free lunch" and that is particularly true on the Internet. In the "soon-to-near" future that you will be paying for your space on the cloud just like you pay for the high speed connection to the Internet or a website that has content you want to read. Maybe the space is free today, but it is for an "introductory" amount of time.
Who or Whom
The bottom line is everyone in the computer industry is moving their services to the cloud. Why: as additional infrastructure is put on the web to support cloud services, the cost for each individual user continues to decline. So, as companies continue to change users money to use the cloud (let's say $5.00 for every 5 GB), the unit cost diminishes for each new user. For example: each user is charged $5.00 for 5 GB, but it only really costs an internet services company $2.50 for 5 GB, thus they make $2.50 per user that uses their cloud. Once they have your data, they can "mine" it (depending on the user agreement) and sell: 1) individual information about a consumer, 2) trending information for a certain class of users, or 3) perform "link analysis" between you, the products you consume, your friends, what they consume, and other stuff.
Conclusion
When shopping for cloud solutions, think about what "capabilities" you are trying to solve by using the cloud. For example: I have a need to stream music to my phone, then I would look at large and small companies that have cloud services to take care of that need. Thus, you can pick which services are best for you cost-wise and service. If you have any questions, leave any comments below!
What
What is Cloud Computing? Simply put, when you are on the internet, you are consuming information (written words) on web pages that are at a certain address on the internet. Like my friend above, he had a question about cloud computing, found my number in the back of the address book, and gave me a call. So, instead of posting information for everyone to see on a web page, he was able to call me and provide a specific message - like an e-mail.
When
So, if we look to the recent past, the late 1950's as school children watched "Leave it to Beaver" on black and white television sets, there were a few engineering folks from the military and education sectors who had a great concept of sharing information about projects and lectures over this electronic network where you can post web-pages and write e-mail. In order to process pages and e-mail, you need allot of computing power, or and an infrastructure to support it, much like there are a bunch of network switches and connections so my friend can give me a call. The computing power was centralized in a single place to provide the workhorse needed to send the e-mails and read the web pages. This model worked for a while and the DARPANET grew (DARPANET was the official name of the network between the military and educational institutions) by leaps and bounds. New web-pages showed off more content for people to read and e-mails started to replace inter-office memos. New capabilities were added to the Internet under the umbrella of collaboration or "File sharing" and "Bulletin Boards". But ... we're not here to provide the history of modern computers ... let's stick with the cloud.
How does this affect me?
The plus side of a centralized system is the pooling together of limited resources into one area to execute programs. In the 1950's, because the infrastructure was thatched together with copper wire and duct tape, you could not send large amounts of information between computers. Having a centralized structure meant you pulled together your resources across a single network. Having a single network maks it easier to: 1) send materials to another use on the system (such as e-mail), 2) find materials which were created by you or someone else, and 3) share the limited processing power available. Having a central network means that the individual user could not customize its configuration or have to learn the computer "geek speak" so many folks utter today.
One of the problems of the centralized system was resourcing. If two or more people ran programs that taxes a systems resources, then the whole network would slow down. Also, there were problems with security, unless the system administrator locked down a set of directories just for you, anyone could access your files. Let's talk about the people aspect for a minute. Unless you are happy with the computer out of the box, there was no way to augment the services provided over the centralized network with additional hardware and software. Usually, there are additional costs associated with new hardware of software configuration changes. Every time you change the configuration of the system, you might introduce new problems. Also, companies can amend their end-user agreements to "mine" the data you are putting into the centralized cloud for advertising purposes. Once the data leaves your hands, you are putting it on the cloud provider's network ... so please look at the end-user agreements to see what right you have to your own data!
Where
Where is the cloud? If you are reading this blog page, you might be on the Internet. The resources that propel the Internet do not reside on your local desktop, but somewhere ... out there ... right beyond your finger tips. The real question boils down to: who pays for the cloud? Right now, everyone access services over the cloud through an internet browser -- for free. Some sites with a higher grade of content are beginning to charge for the content that you are consuming. Remember, there is no "free lunch" and that is particularly true on the Internet. In the "soon-to-near" future that you will be paying for your space on the cloud just like you pay for the high speed connection to the Internet or a website that has content you want to read. Maybe the space is free today, but it is for an "introductory" amount of time.
Who or Whom
The bottom line is everyone in the computer industry is moving their services to the cloud. Why: as additional infrastructure is put on the web to support cloud services, the cost for each individual user continues to decline. So, as companies continue to change users money to use the cloud (let's say $5.00 for every 5 GB), the unit cost diminishes for each new user. For example: each user is charged $5.00 for 5 GB, but it only really costs an internet services company $2.50 for 5 GB, thus they make $2.50 per user that uses their cloud. Once they have your data, they can "mine" it (depending on the user agreement) and sell: 1) individual information about a consumer, 2) trending information for a certain class of users, or 3) perform "link analysis" between you, the products you consume, your friends, what they consume, and other stuff.
Conclusion
When shopping for cloud solutions, think about what "capabilities" you are trying to solve by using the cloud. For example: I have a need to stream music to my phone, then I would look at large and small companies that have cloud services to take care of that need. Thus, you can pick which services are best for you cost-wise and service. If you have any questions, leave any comments below!
