The term "cloud computing" is heard nowadays everywhere. But what is the cloud exactly?
“The Cloud”
In brief, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the internet instead of on a specific computer's hard drive. In fact, the cloud is just a metaphorical name for the internet.
What does the cloud mean for personal home use and for the corporate world? One example for personal use is the Chromebook. A completely cloud-centric device, these simple laptops that run Chrome OS actually turn the Google Chrome Web browser into an operating system. On a Chromebook, everything is online: storage, applications and media are all in the cloud.
When it comes to the business world, the cloud is a bit more complicated. There is talk about Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), where the business must subscribe in order to access an application over the internet. There is also Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), where a business can create its own custom applications. Finally, there is Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), where players like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Rackspace provide a “backbone” that can be rented out by other companies. For example, Netflix uses IaaS services from Amazon.
What is it good for?
By providing all these services to the users and companies, the cloud is becoming a major resource in the IT market. Many advantages can be connected to cloud services, however one of the most important is flexibility. Users of the service can adjust the volume as they need, which was not so easy before. For example, in the past, if a company had a need for increased storage capacity just for a short period of time due to a specific project, possibilities were limited. If the company was running its own data center, it would have had to buy a new storage unit, which would have been useless after the project. And, if the company had hosting services from a provider, the provider would have probably asked for a commitment far beyond the project timelines, and its services might not have been fast enough to meet the company's demands.
What are the negatives to using the cloud?
The number one concern with using the cloud is connectivity. Internet service providers, telecom companies and media companies control access to the internet and so to the cloud. Putting all of one’s data onto the cloud means also putting it on unfettered network access. Internet access is critical for the cloud, and anyone who has had the connection cut off at home for hours knows how frustrating it can be.
The second important point is reliability. Because a business depends on the continuity and security of the services received from the service provider, any problem on the provider side will have a direct impact on the business. When there are problems at a company like Amazon, which provides cloud storage services to big name companies like Netflix and Pinterest, it can take down all of the other companies’ services, as happened in the summer of 2012. Last year in 2014, outages and security breaches afflicted Dropbox, Gmail, Basecamp, Adobe, Evernote, iCloud, and Microsoft.
Another important issue is intellectual property. Who owns the data stored online? If we consider the number of times there has been widespread controversy over the changing terms of service for companies like Facebook and Instagram in terms of what they are able to do with user photos, the question is far from answered. There is also a difference between the data uploaded, and data created in the cloud itself. A provider could have a strong claim on the latter.
The “Internet of Things”
Of course, cloud computing is a big business and getting bigger every day. The market is already generating over $100 billion a year, and it could be $270 billion business by the year 2020.
Experts believe that the evolution of the cloud is far from over, and there are several key factors that will shape the cloud till 2020. The next step seems to be the Internet of Things. This basically means connected devices and networks that are expected to drive the cloud concept forward in the next five years.
Tiffani Bova, Vice President & Sales Strategies analyst at Gartner, when speaking to attendees at the Asigra Cloud Backup Summit held in Toronto on June 22nd 2015 emphasized that the Internet of Things would also bring growing data sizes. She recommended that cloud providers and companies start considering how to handle these large quantities.
It is also very predictable that an evolving cloud will trigger a change in the IT workforce. Does it matter where your services are coming from geographically, as long as reliability is secured? Location may be important from a legal standpoint, but the debate is far from over.
With each passing day, regardless of our technological preferences, we are surrounded by more and more objects linked to the cloud. It is therefore essential for all of us to keep track of its development.
Sources:
http://www.asigra.com/blog/gartner-s-tiffani-bova-asigra-global-partner-summit-0
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372163,00.asp
Photo credits: stokpic and geralt via Pixabay, CC0 Public Domain License
Lots of valid pros and cons of cloud-based computing.
Another one is the cost of cloud services.
I recently checked how much it would cost to back-up my photo and music collection via a cloud service ... and bought an external drive 🙂
This is quite a hot topic here in the UK. The government has a law that requires confidential data to be stored in data centers which are physically in the UK.
Government related apps can't be migrated to the cloud because neither Aws nor Google has data centers here.
Baris, is there a similar requirement for Switzerland whereby Swiss data needs to be stored on Swiss territory? If this is then the case for more and more countries, then what would be the impact on your assertion that, "...It is also very predictable that an evolving cloud will trigger a change in the IT workforce. Does it matter where your services are coming from geographically, as long as reliability is secured? Location may be important from a legal standpoint, but the debate is far from over".