The tech industry loves its buzzwords — Web 2.0, P2P, wiki, blog, MMPORPG, yadda-yadda — to the point of absurdity. It’s as if the denizens of the wired world deliberately come up with new words and concepts to confuse and bedazzle us, needless complicating an already complicated subject.
Such is the latest buzzword, “cloud”, which some companies are jawing about in recent commercials as if it were something new and exciting, which it is not. What is the cloud, you may ask?
Basically, it’s a whole lot of nothing. It’s not a new technology or a new piece of software, it’s just a new way of looking at how people already network and work on the web, and have for several years now.
It’s really about speed and efficiency. The cloud makes sense for companies who provide web services to make that service as fast and widely available as possible, so they allow versions of their online software to be accessible from other servers in a high speed network to make the experience as seamless as possible for customers. Or for people to collaborate on a document or project because they both have cached versions of the same software, eliminating the need to route everything through a central server.
You don’t know if you’re getting a service through the main servers or through a series of proxies with cached versions, and therefore you shouldn’t care. It just works.
Within a closed network, the cloud is an organizational chart that determines how people connect, where data and network software is kept, and how that information is shared (e.g. an office intranet).
In an open, public network, the cloud is kind of like Web 2.0 — a concept where the software and data storage can exist on a “cloud” of decentralized servers which you access remotely through your Internet browser.
Examples include Google Apps (www.gmail.com), Splashup (www.splashup.com), and the new Azure Services Platform announced by Microsoft (www.microsoft.com/azure) that includes Microsoft Live services like Messenger and Folder Share, and will one day include high-level tools for software and web application developers. This will probably make more sense when Windows 7 comes out and you can access your desktop, browser favourites and applications remotely from any computer, or link up computers in your personalized network.
You can’t grasp cloud computing any more than you can grasp an actual cloud. Every explanation I read is a little bit different, leading me to believe that “cloud” means nothing specific, but is actually a catchall term for a lot of different networking concepts that only a handful of people really need to know about.
That said, cloud computing is awesome, even when I didn’t know I was cloud computing. I use Goggle Docs and Spreadsheets regularly, I use Wesabe (www.wesabe.com) to track my finances, and I use two different online file sharing programs (Dropbox, FolderShare) to move and backup my files. I’ve used Splashup.com to fix up images, and I’ve made a blog at Blogspot.
And that said, cloud computing has its detractors as well, who suggest that it could leave people and their data vulnerable. I personally haven’t read the small print for Google Apps, but what if Google is reading my documents or scanning it with the tools they use for their search engines? Could my personal information one day turn up online, either by error or on purpose?
Plus, a hacker has a better chance at getting my personal files and information from an online file sharing service or database than from my hard drive. Not that I have anything worth exploiting or plagiarizing, but it’s worth thinking about as I leave more and more of my life on the web.
And then there’s the safety issue. I assume that Google has my documents backed up somewhere, but what if there’s a fire or earthquake or flood, or all three at once, and their servers are damaged? What if a virus gets in and starts devouring files? Unless you back up your own files and documents to your computer, and to whatever backup system you use, some types of cloud networking or computing could leave you vulnerable.
In conclusion, the cloud is not something the average person needs to know about or understand. Many of you are probably already cloud computing, by another name, so you can blissfully ignore all the hype. Most of all, don’t buy anything.
Website of the Week
www.kongregate.com/games/Ninjakiwi/bloons-tower-defense-3 — this is a new take on the classic tower defence game, where you set up an array of defences between rounds to take on a growing number of invaders — in this case a series of balloons. In this game, you place a series of defensive towers (monkeys, ninja monkeys, super monkeys, exploding pineapples, catapaults, etc.) around winding tracks, and try to pop every balloon before they get to the end. Every balloon that gets through costs you one of your 75 lives. It’s challenging and fun, doesn’t take all afternoon to play, and there’s a real sense of accomplishment when you get to Level 50.
