The Concept of Cloud Computing.Learn it.Love it. Its our Future...

**Resurrection** · 05.10.10, 05:50

Cloud Computing is a subject very close to my heart.

I just graduated in IT engineering and during the final we were required to do a Year-long project related to course.My group chose to make a "Cloud Based Compiler"

Not to toot my own trumpet but our project was one the very few out 61 projects to get a Perfect 10.

Based on that experience,this is the post I came up with...

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What is cloud computing?

In plebeian speak, the term refers to internet-based computing.Applications that are accessible via the internet instead of being installed in your computer.

Without even being aware of it, you most likely are already using some cloud-enabled programs.For example, your Windows Live account, Yahoo!, and Google account—with all their myriad services—come under this Cloud (no pun intended).These programs store nothing on your computer. Instead you log onto their servers, enter your credentials and do your work.The only thing that’s required at the user-end is decently-high bandwidth and a web browser.

This concept is nothing new actually.However what IS new is the services that are now available for public use.

Google has been a leader in cloud computing. They have even released a beta of their Chrome operating system that’s entirely internet based. You create an account and customize your desktop and applications to suit you. Then from any computer, you access Chrome, log in , and there’s your desktop. And your programs. And, most importantly, your data!

But we don't want this silly little applications.I'm here to show you the most interesting cloud computing services available today....

Google Apps – The granddaddy of online applications, Google apps offer a multitude of solutions: word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, photo editing… way too much to list here. Just reviewing everything they offer is great fun! Welcome to Google Apps

icloud - Your friends, files and digital life on any computer - Not impressed with Google Apps.How about a virtual Operating System? iCloud is a desktop with applications that you access through your browser. This virtual computer offers the most popular productivity programs – a Microsoft Word-compatible document editor, a calendar, contact management and a to-do list. Plus iCloud has a music player, a movie player, a photo viewer – even an online radio!But that’s not all. You can even chat with your MSN friends; share files from your iCloud desktop; bookmark your favourite sites; and even get the latest updates from your favourite news sources. And yes, it also provides users with free online storage. icloud - Your friends, files and digital life on any computer

Other similar applications worth considering include eyeOS (eyeos.org), and Cloudo (Cloudo - The Computer Evolved).

DOWNLOAD FREE ANTIVIRUS - The first free cloud antivirus against viruses - CLOUD ANTIVIRUS - or also known as Panda Cloud Antivirus is the The first free Antivirus from the cloud. It has received many decent reviews. PC Magazine stamped it’s renowned Editor’s Choice on Panda CloudAV for Best Free AV.And, of course, it requires an internet connection to function, though it also runs using a cache of well-known threats when you’re offline.

Sumo Paint | Online Image Editor - Online Photoshop...What more do you want me to say?The resource—like any advanced image editor—comes complete with the layers option; graphic filters such as blur, distortion, 3D effects and light effects; as well as a complete tool-set, which includes regulars such as a stamp-clone, ink, eraser, magic-wand, gradient-fill, etc.
Seriously go pay a visit if you don't believe me.

Free Personal Finance Software, Budget Software, Online Money Management and Budget Planner | Mint.com - The Best & Free Cloud Application to manage your money in the Cloud.In just 2+ years of existence it has received 30+ prestigious web awards from the likes of CNN Money, Time, Business Week, PC Mag etc. Just create an account and access all your balances and transactions together on the web or on your iPhone. I think it’s a simple but innovative concept: All your money related accounts viz. Bank Accounts, Credit Card, Loan, Stock Brokerage & other Investment in one place.

SalesForce - lets say you want a cloud based solution.yet its not available yet.If you aren't lazy,why don't you build your own service?It’s a leading cloud platform (PaaS: Platform as a Service) for business applications & websites, an offering from the SaaS (Software as a Service) leader Salesforce.com.You can build & run only your first application for free though....

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The concept of Cloud computing has arrived.In the future though,that is going to be a mainstay of our life.
At the moment many services are free so you know the companies are warming up to it too...

Have fun Up on Cloud no.9! (Bryan Adams

)

Hope you liked this article.Please leave your respones in the comments section below...

**anon** · 05.10.10, 14:16

The Concept of Cloud Computing.Learn it.Love it. Its our Future...

Stuff processed and stored on someone else's servers, and that can't be accessed without an Internet connection. Yeah, a very good deal!

**slikrapid** · 05.10.10, 15:31

The Concept of Cloud Computing.Learn it.Love it. Its our Future...

not quite, it will be forced upon us as a dictated future, you might as well say: love our dictators

Cloud Computing is a subject very close to my heart.

interesting synchronicity, the future green agenda is supposedly shifting from a brain-oriented towards a heart-oriented perception/knowledge/wisdom

Applications that are accessible via the internet instead of being installed in your computer.

meaning you have no control over them, what/how they process (what exactly is the output), who monitors the processing & input/output, who has the privileges to receive the output (and/or input and/or information about your activities/queries), what is being logged and how are these logs being used, which would mean a significant reduction of one's privacy

These programs store nothing on your computer. Instead you log onto their servers

meaning you are entrusting corporations with your private information, hoping they don't abuse it

Have fun Up on Cloud no.9!

that would depend on what exactly is meant by it:

- drug induced state of euphoria
- abandoning sound judgment (brain) for love-thy-friend google & co. (heart), ie. clouded judgment
- servitude upon the cloud of god, enjoying secret knowledge (nr. 9 or inverted 6) and/or its technocratic corporate image/approximation

the proper application of cloud computing is within secure closed environment (within a company, group, organization, industry), its global or loose usage would be like 'asking for trouble' in terms of freedom/privacy/dependence

**Instab** · 05.10.10, 20:19

Originally Posted by anon

Stuff processed and stored on someone else's servers, and that can't be accessed without an Internet connection. Yeah, a very good deal!

exactly, this might only work (not technically) for things like seti

**Resurrection** · 08.10.10, 05:25

Wow I cannot believe people are so skeptical about it...

Allow me to ask you a a few simple questions...

Why do you use e-mail then?why do people indulge in e-banking?

the proper application of cloud computing is within secure closed environment (within a company, group, organization, industry), its global or loose usage would be like 'asking for trouble' in terms of freedom/privacy/dependence

Exactly...People will not accept a product if they are not sure about its robustness,security and privacy...

Doesn't email have some of the most sensitive info ?Doesn't e-banking require you to carry out your money transactions over the net???Do you hate it that it requires constant internet connection to work?

I predict the answer is No because almost all of these services cannot survive without transparency in their functionality...The companies will be held accountable if there are any discrepancies...When you use these products you are sure that your data is encrypted and safe...

It also makes your job so much easier...
I mean look, a graphic designer can buy all the latest versions of 3dsMax or Maya but if his PC is not powerful enough it'll all be worthless.Cloud Computing takes away the need for constant-upgrades/new-resources.All you need is relatively high bandwidth...

I,for one,am all for CC;provided it grows in the direction where the consumer is provided an environment that is private/secure and inspiration to do our best work...

**Instab** · 08.10.10, 05:40

Originally Posted by Resurrection

All you need is relatively high bandwidth...

and looking at most home lines this is why it won't work for now. especially for data intense stuff like gfx.

anyway the way you described it it'd be the same as using a thin client from the user's point of view but still sending data to somewhere you can't control it dösn't sound very pleasing.
further email or online banking is not exactly the same since email is based on sending data over the net. it's its very purpose. same gös for banking stuff. the big difference is that for things you'd do via CC you don't have to send the stuff somewhere at all. same as those online office apps like google has one. i would never ever give my documents to google or any other company for example.

**Resurrection** · 08.10.10, 06:52

Got Cloud Confusion? Check out these resources

One of the most comprehensive articles I've seen to help clear cloud confusion...

**Neutronium** · 08.10.10, 07:11

As Instab said, the problem with cloud computing is having all of your data being rerouted through a 3rd party. Sure, you can send sensitive documents or information through email, but you also have the power to choose what to send. With a cloud based text editor for example, there's no choice in whether or not your information gets sent through that 3rd party. If cloud computing takes over completely, the risk of a breach of privacy grows. Right now if I write a secret document to someone, I can do it with a locally installed text editor and save it to a flash drive and be pretty sure that it's going to be safe. If cloud computing becomes the dominant method of interacting with programs, I can still write that document, but then it exists on a server somewhere in the world, and I have less control over what happens to it.

**anon** · 08.10.10, 21:14

Originally Posted by Resurrection

Wow I cannot believe people are so skeptical about it...

Allow me to ask you a a few simple questions...

Why do you use e-mail then?why do people indulge in e-banking?

Those are not the same, sending simple text messages over the Internet or doing banking operations from your home, which the bank could already log even if done the "traditional" way, isn't the same as storing all your files on someone else's server.

Doesn't email have some of the most sensitive info ?Doesn't e-banking require you to carry out your money transactions over the net???

Sure, but e-mail can be encrypted so that even if it passes from one server to another, only you and the person that's meant to read it can do it easily. And as far as e-banking goes, you can always choose not to use it and walk to your favorite bank instead (not to mention all such sites are SSL-encrypted, also).

Do you hate it that it requires constant internet connection to work?

That wouldn't be an issue here disregarding the occasional ISP blackout, but as Instab said, connection speeds are the problem. Not all of us are in very high-speed lines (which makes sense considering this forum is called Small Bandwidth Innovation) - it's my 20kB/s upload speed vs. writing to my HDDs at 25MB/s. I'm not saying cloud computing doesn't have advantages (such as the ones you mentioned), but I'm personally not a big fan of it, given low connection speeds and privacy concerns.

**Instab** · 09.10.10, 03:29

Originally Posted by Resurrection

Got Cloud Confusion? Check out these resources

One of the most comprehensive articles I've seen to help clear cloud confusion...

i don't think confusion is a factor why people don't like it. i rather think people don't like it because they know how it works.
and don't be naive, this is a paradise for already information hungry companies like google and so many more

**donkeykong** · 10.10.10, 22:35

I already don't trust the programs on my computer, why would I trust programs that are on my computer but run from some other guy's server?

**Resurrection** · 13.10.10, 07:06

I just wrote an extensive project report on it Sir...Of all the adjectives that can be used to describe my opinions,baseless or naive would not be one of them...

Quite seriously,security should the least of your concerns...Lets not forget that it truly is in their best interest to protect your data and maintain you as a long term customer.Large scale implementation of anything is much cheaper than that of small scales. Cloud computing servers provide their services to a large number of businesses and companies. It is easier and more economical for them to make sure that their system is 100% secure from hackers, accidents, and bugs. They can easily afford all types of defensive measures like filtering, patch management, and cryptography techniques

I have some other more serious disadvantages that I can think of...

Ownership - Who owns the data? Who gets the copyright?

Availability and performance - Is the cloud ever-present?what is the quality of the service provided?

Connectivity - Are the cloud inter-connectible? Are the standards same for all clouds?Are they inter-operable?

Privacy - Instances such as the secret NSA program, working with AT&T, and Verizon, which recorded over 10 million phone calls between American citizens come to mind.How much data do you want shared with others?How much is allowed?The trust factor is important...

Shelf Life - If your cloud host disappears, where does your information go? (Theoretically, data stored in the cloud is unusually safe, replicated across multiple machines.But still ...)

I've already listen the advantages and quite frankly I feel Cloud Computing will not only remain a staple in modern business, but will likely streamline organisational operations in many new ways, as well as expanding upon its current uses. Cloud Computing offers a solid answer to the ongoing question all computer users have had since the onset of the computer age, "Will our data communicate with yours?" Most major technology organisations see the bright future of this technology, and are thus throwing hundreds of millions of pounds into development and implementation of new pathways into the Cloud.

**slikrapid** · 13.10.10, 18:31

@Resurrection:

Lets not forget that it truly is in their best interest to protect your data and maintain you as a long term customer

actually, its in their interest to emphasize the advantages and downplay/omit the disadvantages of this technology, just like anyone with vested interests - you/one as a single customer aren't of major importance, its the large scale customers & groups of like-minded (lower level) customers that bring the significant profits, let alone that data mining can be a valuable/profitable side effect for the same companies, either by using/abusing it themselves or by relaying the (relevant) information towards third parties - in this case it is also useful to keep the customer longer in order to create a better user profile

it is easier and more economical for them to make sure that their system is 100% secure from hackers, accidents, and bugs.

everything shouldn't be viewed only from the financial perspective, if its cheaper it most certainly doesn't mean its better - also, cloud computing will not add to security, but rather increase the risks (not to mention that 100% is only a theoretical concept anyways), fi. now 'hackers' don't have to bother to figure out vulnerabilities in each targeted security system, instead they only need to hack the cloud-based system to have access to data from multiple industrial elements and companies that use the particular cloud - as for accidents, if the cloud system fails, all its customers have the problem - the same applies to bugs too, so large scale implementation brings about large scale problems as well

I have some other more serious disadvantages that I can think of...

though you didn't include them in the original post

Cloud Computing offers a solid answer to the ongoing question all computer users have had since the onset of the computer age, "Will our data communicate with yours?"

?!
it already does actually