wwword of the week...The Cloud
1693
By Garth -
on Thu Jul 15 2010
- 1 comment
- share this article
facebookemail+1
Cloud computing refers to the shift of computing power and activities from the traditional desktop computer paradigm to online services that use browsers and servers to do the computing remotely. Cloud computing allows users to share resources, software and information as they need in the same way that an electricity grid shares power.
Advantages:
- It's generally reliable - the companies involved hire brainiacs
to make sure nothing breaks - you no longer need to trawl through
frustrating help files and forums to work out why your software
isn't working because they do it for you.
- It's generally free - companies often offer cloud services for
free (think Google, Flickr) and support their operations with
advertising.
- It's device and location independent - if you have internet
access you can get to your data anywhere, anytime on anything.
- It's secure - (good) companies invest heavily in security
because their reputations depend on it, so you can rest assured
that (good) cloud services are pretty secure.
Disadvantages:
- Reduced control: You have you trust that your service won't go
down but most good cloud services allow you export and backup your
data anyway. Also you generally have less customisation options
compared to stand alone desktop applications.
- Privacy: You are housing all your data in another company's
computers so there are some surrounding privacy issues here.
- Connectivity: Simply put, if you can't access the internet you
can't access your data. However some services now allow you to
synchronise your data to your computer so that you can view it
offline.
Our favourite cloud services:
Dropbox.com.
2gb free storage that can be accessed anywhere in the world with
options to upgrade to more storage at a cost.
Flickr.com.
Everyone knows Flickr and it's a quintessential example of the
cloud in action - storing, viewing and sharing your photos and
videos anywhere in the world, for free.
Google…everything.
Google is virtually synonymous with cloud computing as almost
all of its products exist in the cloud. Be it Gmail, Google Docs,
or Google calendar, almost everything you do with Google takes
place on their servers and is accessed through your browser.
Interestingly Google offers no dedicated file storage, despite
being the company that made cloud computing famous. There are of
course hacks to get around this, but that's for another post…
Xero, Saasu, Workflowmax, Bootcamp etc: There are a great number
of business products and tools in the cloud and they are
indispensable in the modern workplace.
Spotify, Grooveshark: These are outstanding cloud based music
delivery services that allow you to access and stream virtually any
song you want for free.
So...
Cloud computing is the way of the future and with the current
progress towards cloud based operating systems there will possibly
be a time when we're so used to it that it will feel strange to
install software on your computer. We will increasingly fulfil our
computing needs through our browsers and I welcome the
transition!
Some further viewing
A nice explanation
Two interesting counter arguments
This one is pretty funny - Larry Ellison (CEO of Oracle) saying
why he hates "the cloud"
Frank Gillet explaining some misconceptions and giving a perhaps
more realistic marketing-less view
technologies wwword of the week