Cloud Computing

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  1. Posts : 393
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #1

    Cloud Computing


    I keep hearing about and reading about this cloud computing. Now I have not read up on all the facts but if I understand things correct basically I will have a stupid terminal and all my software etc will be out on the internet someplace.

    With all the mega hard drives, flash drives and laptops and other portable devices why would I use some remote service to store my stuff. For backups that works but if I have a meeting here in Orlando and a large storm takes out the net connections and I need a file to complete my sale I just lost it cause its in the "cloud".

    Also how do "they" plan to keep everything secure? we all know all to well that we can't keep a simple web page secure and we want to be running programs based on cloud? This just doesn't make any sense, all my pictures and anything else I deem important is 100% safe in my hands with home and remote storage of flash or HDD. No worries that company X goes out of business or hacked and the pictures of my daughter lost forever (rest her soul and thanks for fireproof safes)

    I just don't get this whole idea, maybe in some distant future when man has stopped fighting over the afterlife "religion" and destroying our home(earth) we will be able to trust such a way of using computers. I know now if I can't do something offline then its not worth doing at all cause the current state of security on the net I wouldn't trust anything I had to do cause the only sites I trust don't have much in the way of security risks.

    maybe i have this all wrong, but either way security is a major issues for cloud computing and I know they are doing it with "smart phones" and I don't trust that in any shape or form. I guess I an turning into one of those people who likes the old ways or I just see major problems down the round for the cloud.

    this is just a rant I had to let out. Anyone agree with me that its just way to soon for the cloud?
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  2. Posts : 3,371
    W10 Pro desktop, W11 laptop, W11 Pro tablet (all 64-bit)
       #2

    Everything in life is cyclic. In the early days of computing, all the apps were on the mainframe behind locked doors. IMO cloud computing is moving back toward that environment.
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  3. Posts : 2,963
    Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
       #3

    Your rant just told me more than I already knew about cloud computing. It also confirmed what I though it meant. I see no problem with being able to back-up all my stuff (well, most of it) to a server, but I still want copies on an internal and external hard drive. If we ran everything off of a server, I'd spend a lot of time worrying about the safety of that data. The programs not so much, but I have some documents that I would never get over loosing. I have copies of these on my internal drive, my external drive, backed-up to two different places online, and emailed to a trusted family member. I don't trust even three methods of keeping my important data safe, so why would I trust someone else's server alone?
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  4. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #4

    You are asking the right questions. Especially the security and accessability aspects are iffy. On the other hand, I can see some value at the corporate level where data and applications have to be shared amongst many people spread over the whole world. Also for applications that one uses once in every blue moon. One may not want to install (and possibly pay for) that rare application.
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  5. Posts : 469
    Win 7 Pro 64-bit
       #5

    In a nutshell:
    - Poor Security (password based hackable)
    - High risk (your third-party data storage company could go out of business or change the rules at anytime for it's own benefit)

    Thinking back to the various places that I have worked, cloud computing has been an issue since the 80's! So I wouldn't bet the [server] farm on anyone's 5-year plan. I see cloud computing as processor-centric and storage-centric.

    In the last 30 years I think a lot of progress has been made in distributed computing. In the old days the commerical goals were to find ways to use many cheap processesors rather than a few really expensive ones. That worked really well, but it's all in-house for the most part. Renting out computing power has not caught on, although you can find instances of it. In contrast, energy advances have come a lot farther and you can sell energy back to the grid from your solar-powered house if you choose not to store it.

    But the meat of the cloud is storage. That's where all data is kept. Informational data has value. Valuable information should be secured. Unfortunately, the best security you have is password protection. Now if you can I can write a hack program to find someone's password, imagine what the full force of any enterprise or government could accomplish. It's downright scary.

    Is cloud computing worth storing a copy of boring data files like my Windows installation? Probably not. It would not be simple to recover Windows from the web, a DVD is a much better choice.

    However, secondary essential software such Adobe, Quicken, Print drivers, etc. are all fine for using the cloud as personal backups. Oh, but I can get all those now as downloads.

    So what IS useful? Maybe my registred CD keys and things that are not life changing if someone on the street found them. Things like that I have found very useful to store on the web, because hard drives crash and you need to have backups (of the key values), although CD/DVD works for that too. That's not a lot of data.

    If I wanted to maintain complete backups of my entire computer in the cloud, which is cheaper? Paying about $100 per year, or buying an external USB hard drive or even a home-office NAS? Hmmm, local storage wins. I can even unplug it and put it in my closet, safe or whatever.

    Would I use the cloud for the convenience of automatic backups? One day, when it's reasonably secure, maybe.
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  6. Posts : 12,364
    8 Pro x64
       #6

    strollin said:
    Everything in life is cyclic. In the early days of computing, all the apps were on the mainframe behind locked doors. IMO cloud computing is moving back toward that environment.
    In a way it is kind of like moving back to having just a 'dumb terminal' instead of a complete PC / OS / Apps.

    The more things change...
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  7. Posts : 6,885
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64, Mint 9
       #7

    We don't have fast enough network connects (and are unlikely to get them, at least in the US) to use cloud computing effectively.

    ~Lordbob
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  8. Posts : 8,135
    Windows 10 64 bit
       #8

    I've been involved in networking and mainframe based applications since 1973 as a regional LAN/WAN network and hardware help desk manager for one of the US Federal Goverment agencies. I've seen it evolve from "dumb" terminals (e.g. IBM 2260 type terminals) with everything on the remote HQ mainframes, to PC's and Novell LAN systems where the applications such as MS Word, dBase, etc were on the server, to "client server" systems to now the "cloud" computing. The "corporate" cloud computing where everything is on the corporate host systems (back to the 1974 dumb terminal systems/host mainframe similar concept) would seem to be much better than outsourcing it to "company X" somewhere that is hosting cloud computing.

    Thin Client systems are also on the rise. My sister-in-law works as a telephone service rep (works at home) for a health insurance company and is in the beta testing for the company's Thin Client testing. This again goes back, more or less, to the "dumb terminal" systems.
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  9. Posts : 123
    Windows 7 Ult x64
       #9

    IBM said that the idea of everyone in an office needing or wanting their own personal computer was ridiculous. History shows that that they were, actually, wrong. However, I once worked for a company that specialized in breaking down and rebuilding office furniture, infrastructure (networks) etc. While we were locking all those PCs in a secure office I realized that, from a logical point of view, IBM were actually correct; the idea of the personal PC is indeed, in a business environment, ridiculous - the mainframe/dumb terminal model makes MUCH more sense however you slice it, and, indeed, the server/thin client model is the continuation of this idea by other means. Cloud computing is, and always will be, a non-starter for business, both practically and legally. Civilians might get some mileage out of it, but are you really going to trust all your photos etc to Google? Didn't think so.
    Last edited by AvatarOfTheShip; 06 Aug 2010 at 21:02. Reason: spelling
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  10. Posts : 6,885
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64, Mint 9
       #10

    AvatarOfTheShip said:
    IBM said that the idea of everyone in an office needing or wanting their own personal computer was ridiculous. History shows that that they were, actually, wrong. However, I once worked for a company that specialized in breaking down and rebuilding office furniture, infrastructure (networks) etc. While we were locking all those PCs in a secure office I realized that, from a logical point of view, IBM were actually correct; the idea of the personal PC is indeed, in a business environment, ridiculous - the mainframe/dumb terminal model makes MUCH more sense however you slice it, and, indeed, the server/thin client model is the continuation of this idea by other means. Cloud computing is, and always will be, a non-starter for business, both practically and legally. Civilians might get some mileage out of it, but are you really going to trust all your photos etc to Google? Didn't think so.
    I would agree that from a business standpoint it makes a lot of sense.

    But NOT for personal use (as said)

    ~Lordbob
      My Computer


 
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