Thread: Should the cloud replace local apps and storage?

Probably most of us are now using the cloud to some extent. The question is, should that eventually replace all our apps and data storage?

Consider Dilbert's dilemma: Dilbert

My belief is that while there are many advantages, there are also risks. We should never completely give up local ability.

What do others believe?

Ummmm..... maybe I am not supposed to ask this but what is 'cloud'?

The 'cloud' is made up of servers dedicated to providing online applications and data storage to individual users.

Instead of running applications like word processing in your computer, you use those that are available for use online and you store your data online. You don't need much computer, just enough to get you to the service you use. I have some short stories I've written using Google Documents. The advantage is I can go to an Internet cafe, log in, and work on my stories exactly as I would at home. When I get home the additions and edits I made on the road are there.

You don't need your own computer at all for applications such as basic word processing. Use the computers in the Internet cafes, and if you want a copy of what you do you can download it to a flash drive.

So far applications available for the individual are limited, but the promoters promise much more to come.

Okay I get it now...... the thought here is that since the data can be found online why have it on your computer right? For the typical person keeping it online is the best option, but for people like me who are hard core gamers and watch anime at every chance they get keeping the file in your own computer has a certain feel to it. I keep the best anime in my computer even though I barely watch them, Its something like owning the book instead of asking the libarary for it.

Originally Posted by garza

The 'cloud' is made up of servers dedicated to providing online applications and data storage to individual users.

So that's how you call them... I learned something new today.

Over time, it's not really going to be a choice individuals can make except to the extent one is willing to accept limitations. The latest, greatest, the best and fastest and the newest are increasing going to be offered in only the one form and one's ability to keep local capacity will be decreasingly viable, at least in those arenas. Many of us, however, with minimal requirements, will hang on, like the last pterodactyl, riding the meteor in, to our obsolete, unsupported but cozy little nests.

What would Ben Franklin say ? I use Ben Franklin because the man was a genius. Weather formulas he created is still used today to forecast weather. Fireplaces he created still sell. The fire helmets he created are still being used despite attempts to use modern technology to try to replace the materials he said to use.

With all that said.

Ben and Thomas Jefferson (and a few others) believed that a person should be secure in their papers and personal effects. Putting my stuff out there where it can easily be stolen or lost ? Don't think so.

Originally Posted by ppsage

Over time, it's not really going to be a choice individuals can make except to the extent one is willing to accept limitations. The latest, greatest, the best and fastest and the newest are increasing going to be offered in only the one form and one's ability to keep local capacity will be decreasingly viable, at least in those arenas. Many of us, however, with minimal requirements, will hang on, like the last pterodactyl, riding the meteor in, to our obsolete, unsupported but cozy little nests.

The choice will always reside with the individual, be they a person or a corporation. The latest and greatest will be built for whoever has money, and if the money supports local applications and storage that's where the heavyweights will pool their resources to compete. Cloud computing is far from a certainty, particularly since we've already had cloud computing, such as VAX networks, exist previously and be moved away from.

The obvious benefits to cloud computing are the economies of scale they generate. You can rent time and storage on a server for a fraction of the cost of purchasing similar equipment, let alone the maintenance costs associated with it. Pool that with some form of collective license for the software you run on it, and you're looking at significant savings. Cloud computing is already the norm in web hosting, where you purchase an account with an amount of space, bandwidth, and services available. (ecommerce, databases, email addresses) Why support the cost of IT resources for these services when you don't have to.

Control.

That's what it comes down to on the personal and corporate level. Who controls your data, your apps, and the access to them? Do you really want all your music, writing, photographs, and other data out there on the web, ready to either be lost or stolen? How much more sensitive is this issue for a bank or government? Do you want all your financials, strategic planning documents, and other sensitive information out there waiting to be hacked? What about the name, SIN/SSN, and address of every citizen in the country, including medical records, sexual preference, and financial history?

Check out this ironic article:
Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle

Amazon can't delete a book from your bookshelf, or remove it from your device if it's not connected to the Internet, but the Kindle's operation is tied completely to the online world/cloud. If you can lose that much control over a physical device you have in your possession, imagine how much more vulnerable you are when the data and applications are all stored online. Even if you're in the right and can one day restore/regain access to your data and applications, what has it cost you to go without for however long that takes?

As a company, can you survive without access to your customer databases? As a writer, would you want to lose access to all your writings unless you updated to Word 2012, because they've removed your access to the previous version?

I mostly use the Web/Cloud as a communication tool, and store/backup all of my important data offline. None of my media or documents are electronically stored online without another version existing locally, be it digital or physical. Usually, it's both. (If you're wondering, I have 6TB of offline storage attached to my computer.)

Shop local, store local, play on the Cloud

My words exactly, Capulet.

Basically, cloud computing completely disregards the meaning of "sensible data".

Just look at Google, probably THE biggest information network existing. Not even the CIA would compare against a company that runs our emails, searches, mobile phones, and who knows what else. If someone where to hand the right amount to the right person, this data could be used against one of these users.

This is why I think the cloud-computing craze is not going anywhere beyond corporate environments. Computers today are more than able to handle any user's needs, and they are shrinking in size and increasing in power while reducing costs. If you look at it objectively, more can be done by decentralizing the information than centralizing it. Because the raw computing power of every single device existing highly outnumbers that of the most powerful servers.

Executing queries on several sources (ten thousand or more) is cheaper than having a single server handling ten million. The centralization of data is a big fallacy corporations do to get more information, and thus more power.

The "true" cloud is one where all computers are connected, interoperating, and collaborating. Your mobile phone could hand some cycles to help cure cancer, and if you have ten million of those (which we do), the simulations could be done much faster than the most powerful data center.

Capulet - That's a good summary of the situation, but I believe we can go a few steps beyond play.

elite - The cloud does offer one advantage for the individual user - its ability to provide instant collaboration.

I'm currently involved in a project that includes hundreds of hours of oral history collected from many people across the country. Also, I have a young man working for me going through old newspapers and other documents at the National Archives in Belmopan. Transcriptions of the oral history videos and the material from archives are uploaded to shared spaces. My responsibility is to collate, edit, and write continuity to create a coherent picture of the recent past from disparate sources. Instead of emailing constantly back and forth, we all see what each is doing as it's done. I don't have to wait for the guy in Belmopan to send me his material. He uploads his notes as he's working in the archives. He keeps a copy on his notebook, of course, and I keep a copy on my hard drive, so there is on-the-ground backup.

While this project is intended eventually to make money, there's no security issue because all the information we are uploading is available otherwise. If this were a project involving valuable proprietary information then I would have doubts about storing the data somewhere out there.

Originally Posted by garza

The advantage is I can go to an Internet cafe, log in, and work on my stories exactly as I would at home.

You call that an advantage? To me, anything that enables me to stay grunting in my corner at home is an advantage. Anything else is a disadvantage.

I've been working in the "cloud" for like 5 years now. Only everyone called it web applications. I mean, what is the "cloud?" Well, as far as I can tell, it's servers, and applications and databases and some of them are hooked together and you can get to them over the internet.

The thing is, all of this has been going on for years -- only now there are more and bigger applications and more people have access to them -- so now it's a "CLOUD!"

Really, it's just an annoying buzzword -- and Microsoft and IBM etc. have latched onto it to try and hoodwink people who don't know any better. I saw a commercial --and some lady is saying, "Wow, I'm editing and storing my photos on the CLOUD -- all thanks to Microsoft! Ha ha. If I go into one more meeting and hear the word "cloud," I'm going to puke.

Well, whatever you want to call it, it has advantages and disadvantages like everything else. Cloud is just a convenient term.

None of the online applications I've seen so far impress me. The project I mentioned is, at this stage, strictly text based, so everyone involved uses Notepad which makes it easy - no compatibility problems when a file is downloaded. When the time comes to do the final editing everything will go through Word to be uploaded both as docx and pdf files. The online word processors I've seen can't compare with Word.

I really don't think I've been hoodwinked. We've been using the system every day for a while now and it has proven to be a real time saver. We all stay on the same page, and when you have people spread out across the country working on one project co-ordination is essential. Keeping our shared files online updated regularly ensures that co-ordination.

And yes, I continue to see the advantage of being able to sit in a coffee shop/Internet cafe and continue writing, either for myself or for any project I'm working on. I've too many years on the road to be happy sitting still for long. The urge to go walkabout strikes here the same as in Downunderland.

Originally Posted by garza

I really don't think I've been hoodwinked.

I didn't say or imply that you, Garza, have been hoodwinked. You've obviously found a useful application on the "cloud" and you are using it to your advantage.

Some companies are using the word to hoodwink naive consumers -- the commercial I mentioned is evidence of that.

The "cloud" is a buzzword -- nothing more. It's no more important a concept or thing than "desktop." If I call a toaster a Miracle Bread Cooker, it's still a toaster.

I am not a great fan and yes I think it's the 'buzzword' of the moment. Not a fan due to a laptop crash, err, no disc cause it's all online.
Ok reboot and it will go online to find the o/s, err, no cause it needs the o/s to get online! Round and round we went, ending up by buying new laptop, so suspect big conspiracy theory taking place here! Prefer to have my apps and my work to hand, so to speak as they are either all on disc or on two or three flash memory sticks.
We will quite soon all be prone to the cyber-terrorist with their EMP, then what??