 Guess Who!
I would like to start by saying that I am no computer expert nor do I claim to fully understand this whole notion of Cloud computing, but rather I will try to describe the aforesaid to the best of my ability. Cloud computing is the next step in internet. Things will change from being the World Wide Web to being the word wide computer. There will be a new medium for transferring data between two people two companies and so forth. Information will no longer be stored, saved or paraphrased in any one tangible computer, but rather the new information will be kept in the masses of fiber optic cables and high speed tubing that is the internet. Essentially all of the internet will be kept in a intangible world of data bases. Cloud computing is like a super search engine that can contain and retrieve and unlimited amount of information. For instance if Google can show a user about five percent of the internet at any given time then Cloud computing can show that same person one hundred percent of the internet, and at a much higher rate of speed. This is all made possible because the information is not being held in some private computer some where, but instead the information is kept in the metaphysical space that is the internet. In other words the internet itself is converted into one giant super computer that everyone taps into to retrieve or ad information. It is supposes to make software and most hardware, expect perhaps a laptop, completely obsolete. Some of the major proprietors of Cloud computing are Google, Amazon, I.B.M., Yahoo, Oracle and Microsoft. They are all companies that are racing to spearhead the new data technology and to make it work in their favor which means being able to turn a profit on the new technology. Some examples of cloud computing that are now in effect are Facebook, twitter, flickr, YouTube, Myspace, and Wikipedia. These Companies in conjunction with their new capabilities provide the same service as complicated computer systems up kept by droves of IT guys. It is like A, B and C; meaning A is the person logging onto their computer C is the goal of the person logging in. B is the means by which the transaction is executed; B is the middle man that makes it all possible. In the old days a person would dial zero and an operator would answer and ask where one would like there call directed, this is like the current internet. With the Use of Cloud computing the operator is now animated therefore there is no longer a use for a person to man the equipment. SaaS stand for software as service, and it relates to Cloud computing because with the advent of this new computer technology all software will never have to be sold or upgraded by traditional means. By not having to actually own the software it saves money for the user, the software installed only when the user needs to use it and when he or she is done the software uninstalls. In utilizing this method of use a person never has to worry about using dated software because it is self-upgrading. Utility Computing refers to the way tools are used on the computer. If a person would like to save information they would have the option of buying exactly the amount of secure storage space they would need on the internet from a company like Amazon. They would pay as they go, for tools for computation and applications. By utilizing this policy the user will have great access to professional technology at a fraction of the price of comparable machinery. Moore’s Law refers to the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit, and the way that it has increased exponentially over the last five decades. This relates to cloud computing in an amazing way because it means that the law is now poised to deliver infinite possibilities. It was thought that the exponential growth would only last another decade, but now it has no limit. Every computer in the world will be linked together with cloud computing, so the limits are boundless. I am an ordinary computer user and the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the benefits of Cloud computing are its storage capabilities. I currently carry a flash drive with me on my key chain anywhere I go. In cloud computing I could just save every morsel if information I want on my gmail account. Another way that it could help me would be for general research. Allow me to explain; when I go into google and look up global warming I receive, let us say, ten thousand hits. Well then, when I do the same at yahoo I receive another then thousand hits. I am then forced to investigate the best sites that suit my cause, but my primary grievance with having to do so is the time it takes. Each search engine gives me different articles of information pertaining to my original search, if only there were some way of not only getting a snippet of what I am looking for but rather a three sixty view of the entire sea of information that appertains to my enquiry. My quest is alleviated by better technology, such is Cloud computing. The benefits of cloud computing for a start-up company are clearly explained in the article by the New York Times. The company is Animoto, they were able with stand a huge up surge of users without having to invest in further server capacity. They had to pay only ten cents per server per hour; it was all made possible through the use of scalability. They were using a cloud system through Amazon, the co-founders were able pay as they go never having to purchase more space then they needed. Getting back to the benefits, the small company saw nothing but profits from using Cloud computing. After all this talk about how wonderful cloud computing is one has to wonder if there are any negatives that might comes from this new limitless technology. The answer is rather short, yes there are. A major problem in the foreseeable future is the loss of thousands and thousands of IT jobs. Since all the information on the web is not going to be held in one specific spot or series of spots then that presents the problem of people not being needed to upkeep the hardware and software that is being circulated throughout the internet. Nicolas Carr say in his book The Big switch that, Computerization is taking a very different course. It’s allowing companies to replace all sorts of workers, skilled and unskilled, with software, but it isn’t creating big new classes of well-paying jobs in the place of the ones it destroys. That’s one of the main reasons that we’ve been seeing the steady erosion of middle-class prosperity over the last two decades. This effect will be magnified by the arrival of the World Wide Computer, which is both displacing additional categories of jobs and allowing other jobs to be transferred overseas where they can be performed more cheaply. If the electric utility helped create the vast middle class, the computing utility may help destroy it. Carr also goes on to talk about the further implications of the cloud computing on the media and the way it has bonded us together in the past. Each person can essentially expose themselves only to the media that best fits them… For all the flaws of the mass media, it helped give diverse people a common sense of identity; it served as a glue for society. That glue is being dissolved, and a lot of the mainstays of our culture, such as the kind of hard journalism that was traditionally done by newspapers, are facing severe economic threats. As I argue in the book, we may end up losing more than we gain. The last and possibly most important point is the issue of security. If all of one’s information is readily accessible on the internet, not that it is not already, then how would that person protect themselves from miscreants? I tend to see this as a great way for American tech workers to market themselves to us as internet security consultants, on-line security guards and so-forth. It may not replace all of the displaced and out-sourced jobs but it will hopefully create a new niche for savvy American IT workers. Si se puede! Google is just trying to make a buck when it comes to distributing the, so-called, internet in China. They are adhering to the Golden Shield Policy that severely restricts the kinds of web sites that the average citizen can and cannot view. Google has been rightly criticized for allowing China to compromise its search capacity. The Epoch Times says that, “Mr. He further explained that China's Golden Shield Project is only the technical part used to block the Internet. China is more aggressive in taking legal and administrative measures to monitor and censor the networks used by the public; and the financial and material resources put into them are just phenomenal.” Relating this sort censorship to cloud computing one can see that the two cannot coexist. If cloud computing is introduced to China it would make their Golden Shield Project a complete thing of the past because it would be next to impossible for them to try and filter out the whole of the internet without an army of IT guys working twenty four hours a day seven days a week. The notion of limiting the content is even then questionable because I really do not know enough about computers to properly state the kind of man-power needed to fully index the web. All in all Google is not keeping with net-neutrality when it allows any encroachment of free search rights. Make it all or nothing. As of today, January 30, 2009 I feel perfectly safe storing my web pages on the cloud, i.e.… my Google account. If someone were to try and hack my account they would find nothing but a gaggle of spam mail, school projects, and maybe an old debit card number or two. If the thieves were somehow able to get login or personal information they would be barking up the wrong tree because I did not even put any of my real contact information. I always make it a habit to use some fake name and address, so as to throw-off such an attack on my identification. Even if a very diligent hacker were to follow the paper trail or something like that I have no money anyhow. What is he going to do hack into my B of A account and take my fifteen dollars? They wouldn’t let me take out that last bit; it had to be in multiples of twenty. The bastards! They’re the real thieves! I generally do not trust banks and I only have a bank account so that I can cash my checks and be on my way. Perhaps if I was extremely wealthy and had too much money to simply convert to gold(please refer to the Money As Debt Video) and keep at an undisclosed location would I consider exclusively using a protected server such as USF, but until then I could care less.
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