The Cloud

[Alonewarrior]

So I'm curious as to what everyone's thoughts are on the cloud. Do you like it, hate it, don't care?

This summer my university moved their student's email to the cloud so they wouldn't have to manage it, but they kept their staff and faculty emails local. My dad, a systems admin here, tells me they don't have any intentions on moving anything else out to the cloud, but I believe things could change down the road that negatively affect him. So right now I'm seeing what it can do to benefit us, and also how it can hurt us (my university). So what are your thoughts on it?

Edit: For those who may not know, the cloud is an out-sourced infrastructure that companies use to handle data instead of requiring a staff at their company to handle upkeep.

[Deleted]

The problem with Cloud that so many people and companies seem to ignore is that it actually requires FAST INTERNET.

Sure, you can take it for granted in Scandinavia and South Korea...but anywhere else its either costly or unavailable. Even in Germany, an very modern country in many regards only has about 10% of their population on anything faster than 3 M/bit. Until that changes, Cloud will remain a niche for the private consumer.

[Asera]

Are you referring to cloud storage, or cloud computing? Cloud storage is what it means, cloud computing is also outsourcing processing tasks remotely.

I use "the cloud" for some things (notably dropbox), but otherwise, I keep my file archives, works, documents, and office crap stored locally, as a lot of it is sensitive information that I DON'T want stored in someplace I don't know where the physical NAS is.

I see cloud computing being beneficial, but I hate cloud storage. Mostly due to privacy, and like someone said, it requires a ridiculous amount of bandwidth.

[Djinni]

The idea of the Cloud has been raped and monetised so much that the original idea and purpose of it has been effectively lost.... I suspect it'll be a long long time before we see any real benefits from the technology.

The original point was decentralised processing of data. When you say moving "email to the cloud" thats nothing actually any different to how you used to use it... the "cloud" in this case likely doesn't process anything it didn't before (IE the client isn't run server side with the output giving you the full functionality of a local one.)

The main point of "decentralised" processing of data is that you can much more efficetively use the processing power that would otherwise be wasted for other processes/users. In this case though again.. you still have your local "thick" client downloading the data from the "cloud" and processing it locally... so it's actually nothing more than multiple redundant servers serving the same information the same way it's been for many years.

[Alonewarrior]

The idea of the Cloud has been raped and monetised so much that the original idea and purpose of it has been effectively lost.... I suspect it'll be a long long time before we see any real benefits from the technology.

The original point was decentralised processing of data. When you say moving "email to the cloud" thats nothing actually any different to how you used to use it... the "cloud" in this case likely doesn't process anything it didn't before (IE the client isn't run server side with the output giving you the full functionality of a local one.)

The main point of "decentralised" processing of data is that you can much more efficetively use the processing power that would otherwise be wasted for other processes/users. In this case though again.. you still have your local "thick" client downloading the data from the "cloud" and processing it locally... so it's actually nothing more than multiple redundant servers serving the same information the same way it's been for many years.

Well, we used to completely run the email servers ourselves, but I suppose they figured it would be easier to allow someone else to manage those servers than to keep them here. I haven't progressed far enough through computer science, or researched enough, to know all the details related to it, but I do know they started using the cloud for email instead of keeping the email servers local.

[Djinni]

Well, we used to completely run the email servers ourselves, but I suppose they figured it would be easier to allow someone else to manage those servers than to keep them here. I haven't progressed far enough through computer science, or researched enough, to know all the details related to it, but I do know they started using the cloud for email instead of keeping the email servers local.

Yeah the cloud in this case I think is just a marketing fad.... it has nothing to do with cloud computing.

It's just using someone like google to host the email servers instead of doing it "in-house" which is what most universities do.
It cuts down allot of costs by no longer requiring daily maintained, you no longer have to hire a member of staff to make sure that they're working and to add and remove students from the system, and you no longer have the running costs (electricity) of the system that hosts the email exchange. (not to mention all the switches, routers, firewalls (physical and software) etc.. involved.) - Which in a sense is what the cloud is about... but from what I understand your mail retrieval process just involves possibly using a different url.

[Tic Tacs]

Why would someone call <insert service(s)> the cloud is beyond me.

It all depends on the cloud provider(s) you are using, duh.

[Drakoes]

Pretty sure the cloud computing is going to be out of date already since, in a sense, even if this sounds wrong, storage has already been available on webspace and even some games can be played on browsers already.

It's not that exciting even if that example I gave wasn't accurate, since it is similar anyway.

Now how about quantum computing? That sounds way more interesting imo.

[Djinni]

Pretty sure the cloud computing is going to be out of date already since, in a sense, even if this sounds wrong, storage has already been available on webspace and even some games can be played on browsers already.

It's not that exciting even if that example I gave wasn't accurate, since it is similar anyway.

Now how about quantum computing? That sounds way more interesting imo.

Lol... it's not out of date... most people haven't even heard of it yet.

The problem is that marketing advisor's are slapping the Cloud name and logo on everything that could possibly be related... a prime example of how an amazing technology with MASSIVE potential gets ruined by our flawed currency system.

[Drakoes]

Lol... it's not out of date... most people haven't even heard of it yet.

The problem is that marketing advisor's are slapping the Cloud name and logo on everything that could possibly be related... a prime example of how an amazing technology with MASSIVE potential gets ruined by our flawed currency system.

Slapping on the cloud name on anything they can get their hands on is marketing to an extent, imo.

And yes, cloud computing is new upcoming stuff but I still can't help say that there are already forms of it already which aren't that "revolutionary"... Personally, more looking forward to Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge Extreme CPUs, haha.

[Djinni]

Slapping on the cloud name on anything they can get their hands on is marketing to an extent, imo.

And yes, cloud computing is new upcoming stuff but I still can't help say that there are already forms of it already which aren't that "revolutionary"... Personally, more looking forward to Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge Extreme CPUs, haha.

I wouldn't blame you... because you probably know what those are and they will likely affect you in the very near future.
And there's nothing wrong with true marketing... but for that to happen the people doing the marketing need to know the differences in the products that they are marketing... slapping "Cloud" on a 5tb home storage NAS drive does nothing to help the Cloud endeavour. Because it creates a hugely misinformed user base, which then makes people very suspicious and hesitant to buy into any REAL cloud service when it does come.

[Alonewarrior]

This is the best thing I can come up with for the cloud: http://xkcd.com/908/

[Djinni]

This is the best thing I can come up with for the cloud: http://xkcd.com/908/

haha lol.. very good

[angael]

I find that I can be useful for some things, but not so much for others. I don't feel like its the safest way for some files to be kept either.

Also:
I find how apple's coming out with their whole iCloud thing somewhat funny since there are other cloud providers out there.

[taekvideo]

My university just did the same thing... and it's not hard to decide whether I like it or not... let's see, 50MB limit from the local email service.... or 25GB limit from google... hrmm...

[noteworthynerd]

I'm for Cloud Computing, against Cloud Storage.

[Djinni]

I'm for Cloud Computing, against Cloud Storage.

Unfortunately it's very difficult to have one without the other... although I do agree with not promoting Cloud Storage as a separate individual service.

[noteworthynerd]

Unfortunately it's very difficult to have one without the other... although I do agree with not promoting Cloud Storage as a separate individual service.

Indeed, and that's where I make the distinction. Services like Carbonite are simply far too bandwidth intensive for me (as a Network Admin) to support.

[Asera]

Cloud storage is for the most part fine for text, small pictures, standalone programs (for example, I put my folder of stress testers, system monitoring programs and powertools on dropbox so it's on every machine I own)... but when you got a soccer mom on her computer being like I WANT TO UPLOAD ALL MY 14 MEGAPIXEL UNCROPPED PHOTOGRAPHS OF MY KIDS ALL DAY EVERY DAY AND THERE'S VIDEOS TOOO!!!! That's when cloud storage fucking sucks.

[Djinni]

Cloud storage is for the most part fine for text, small pictures, standalone programs (for example, I put my folder of stress testers, system monitoring programs and powertools on dropbox so it's on every machine I own)... but when you got a soccer mom on her computer being like I WANT TO UPLOAD ALL MY 14 MEGAPIXEL UNCROPPED PHOTOGRAPHS OF MY KIDS ALL DAY EVERY DAY AND THERE'S VIDEOS TOOO!!!! That's when cloud storage fucking sucks.

Till said soccer mom is bored home alone.....