Your tech career depends on preparing for the cloud

[ionbasa]

Hi all
Corporate Greed will rear its ugly head again here.

First Genuine Cloud computing will require NO BANDWIDTH LIMIT -- however it seems more and more ISP's are beginning to cap babdwidth -- seems the days of unlimited bandwidth are coming to an end.

Secondly -- since the servers can be located ANYWHERE (including Planet Mars if you like) it's a SURE THING that even more of the I.T industry will be offshored to cheaper countries like India, the Phillipines etc etc (regardless of the quality of Customer Service) decimating even more of an industry that has seen literally hundresds of thousands of jobs in the West disappear in the last few years.

Any youngsters reading this -- by all means stay interested in I.T but if you want to make good money and also be in a position where your job is 100% safe and CAN'T be off shored -- take up Plumbing or Gas fitting instead.

Cheers

jimbo

unless you decide to work for a company like NCIX, Fry's Electronic, and quite possibly EVGA. Those companies generally 99% of the time stick to their mainland.

 

[thefabe]

I'm just going to say thanks t o JHM for posting another great article.
This one seems to have a lot of opinions and sparks the mind to think and express their opinions.

Only time will tell where we're headed with this I think Windows Eight will be a good starting place to see if this is actually the direction people want.

It has interested me enough to do some reading on it. But I will say it has a real negative connotations when you consider how Big Brother can get involved.
Fabe

 

[mr pc]

One thing that hasn't been brought up and is beyond the IT dynamic of "Cloud" computing is personal OS modification.

Would these OS "proprietors" limit personal OS mods? Would they be able to tag such changes as copyright violations? Or Would they find another profitable option in charging for changes (ie: Apps) for personalization.

I pray nobody who may have that control and is working in the "Cloud" conversion is reading this.

The "Cloud" is going to clog growth in personal computing.

 

[Skulblaka]

Hey, why not, this seems like an improvement, it requires a little polish. Which new advancement doesn't?

Security will never be fullproof but they can improve on it. Also, I bet you still have trouble giving up your old Super Nintendo.

 

[BCXtreme]

Actually when you think about it what would be bad if only the OS was on the cloud, but ALL DATA was stored local and unreachable to the cloud?

I'm honestly not sure what the point of that would be. First of all, the local data would have to be reachable from the cloud, else it wouldn't really be an OS at all. Second, why would you want the OS on the cloud at all? With all your data stored locally, what would be the purpose of having to access the Internet to get into the OS? What could the OS possibly do that it can't do just fine the way it is now?

Well that means that if you customized your OS you could access it at any computer connected to the Internet, but you could not access the data. I think I made a somwhat stupid coment because I just realized why that would be useless, but what if corporations managed their own "private" cloud for use only on their network?

I think they can already do that, but they call it a "mainframe".

Hi all
Corporate Greed will rear its ugly head again here.

First Genuine Cloud computing will require NO BANDWIDTH LIMIT -- however it seems more and more ISP's are beginning to cap bandwidth -- seems the days of unlimited bandwidth are coming to an end. This will cost consumetrs a lot more.

Secondly -- since the servers can be located ANYWHERE (including Planet Mars if you like) it's a SURE THING that even more of the I.T industry will be offshored to cheaper countries like India, the Phillipines etc etc (regardless of the quality of Customer Service) decimating even more of an industry that has seen literally hundresds of thousands of jobs in the West disappear in the last few years.

Any youngsters reading this -- by all means stay interested in I.T but if you want to make good money and also be in a position where your job is 100% safe and CAN'T be off shored -- take up Plumbing or Gas fitting instead.

Cheers

jimbo

"Corporate Greed"? How about "Corporate Survival"? Surely you must realize that corporations don't run on 100% profit margins. Corporations exist for the purpose of making money, and yeah, they're going to adapt their business so that continues to be possible, regardless of any external factors. This is why doing anything on a national or industry scale that intentionally makes it more expensive and/or more difficult to do business in that nation/industry is a BAD idea. It gives the corporations two choices: 1) shift costs onto the entities (incl. consumers) that they do business with, or 2) begin losing money and eventually going out of business. Just how many jobs you think we'll lose then?!

And for the record. Unlimited bandwidth is impossible to provide nowadays because of the sheer number of Internet users and their various devices. The rise of multi-gigabyte game and video downloads also helped speed the death of unlimited bandwidth. In short, unlimited bandwidth is gone because it no longer exists. Even the ISPs that still claim to offer unlimited (none that I am aware of), try downloading 400GB/wk off of their connection, and you'll be surprised at just how limited your bandwidth is!

One thing that hasn't been brought up and is beyond the IT dynamic of "Cloud" computing is personal OS modification.

Would these OS "proprietors" limit personal OS mods? Would they be able to tag such changes as copyright violations? Or Would they find another profitable option in charging for changes (ie: Apps) for personalization.

I pray nobody who may have that control and is working in the "Cloud" conversion is reading this.

The "Cloud" is going to clog growth in personal computing.

Yeah, I can definitely see major companies using the "cloud" as an excuse to close their platforms as Apple has done with iOS (and that's not even cloud-based yet!).

 

[Tepid]

OP Article in one word....

Propaganda

Get enough people thinking that is what they need to do and you can make it a reality.
Don't buy the hype.
​

 

[Skulblaka]

OP Article in one word....

Propaganda

Get enough people thinking that is what they need to do and you can make it a reality.
Don't buy the hype.
​

But we shouldn't completely ignore it.

 

[Turismon]

The costs don't save anything. I agree with that word. All the CEO's and CIO's get fed this bs about how it is so great and saves money, but they don't have the slightest clue to what is really involved in the process.All it is for is people pushing it to make more money and take it away from hardware vendors etc and what not and then fill CIO's etc heads full of rubbish to make you waste the money putting stuff on the cloud. In the end it will end up costing more and be reverted back.

For some companies the Cloud could make sense for some things, but not for others.

I'm just sick of the "Cloud" term. It's so retarted, when it should just still be called "Hosted" services. But whatever.

 

[smarteyeball]

I'm just sick of the "Cloud" term. It's so retarded, when it should just still be called "Hosted" services. But whatever.

Cloud is accessible to the masses - even if they they have no idea what it means.

It fosters an easier acceptance through 'pleasant' connotations.



"Hosted" services means even less to the masses and merely fosters confusion.


Smiley dog vs Bitey dog. As a non-dog person, which would you want to pat?

 

[Turismon]

Yeah I kind of agree, but they know that hosted services cost alot and usually aren't worth it. But to them cloud is some new cheap magic button. It's just overblown propaganda. Oh we can just put it on the cloud.... lol makes me spit up a little every time.

 

[lehnerus2000]

The entire purpose ...

The entire purpose of the "Cloud", is to take power away from ordinary people and return it to those who are most qualified to wield it (i.e. Corporations and the Government).

There is nothing that the Corporations and Government hate more, than "Democracy" and "Freedom of Choice".

I have to laugh though.
If the US Government had proposed this idea, millions of Americans would be rioting in the streets.
Since it was proposed by the Corporations, those same Americans are cheerleading the idea.

Software companies (especially game developers) must be "c****** in their pants", in anticipation of the day that they can restrict access to their products, to "approved" customers only.

The cost savings are illusory.
The first one-day outage will cost a business more, than they would've spent on an internal IT department's budget, for an entire year.

There may be sectors that could benefit from the "Cloud" (e.g. mobile workers) but for everyone else it is just a money siphoning scam.
To paraphrase Homer Simpson, "Oh I see. First get us addicted and then jack up the price."

I can even see the first "apology" letters, "We are very sorry, but we have to increase the cost of your "Cloud" subscription, due to unprecedented demand."

Everyone who is interested in "Personal Computing", should resist the "Cloud".

 

[Colonel Travis]

Cloud is accessible to the masses - even if they they have no idea what it means.

It fosters an easier acceptance through 'pleasant' connotations.

Perhaps. But this is also a cloud:

 

[Tepid]

It fosters an easier acceptance through 'pleasant' connotations.

Isn't that similar to what the Nazi's did? Just asking.

 

[BCXtreme]

Cloud is accessible to the masses - even if they they have no idea what it means.

It fosters an easier acceptance through 'pleasant' connotations.

Perhaps. But this is also a cloud:

Indeed.

It fosters an easier acceptance through 'pleasant' connotations.

Isn't that similar to what the Nazi's did? Just asking.

My personal opinion: If you have to use "pleasant connotations" to get people to accept something, you're being deceitful. And the people that "accept" it based on those connotations aren't really accepting what it really is; rather, they are accepting what they think it is.

Bring a new device, new software, or any new technology to market and call it what it is. If people like it and want it, you've got a keeper. If they don't, do not resort to "pleasant connotations" in order to trick them into supporting you/it. It's dishonest.

 

[mr pc]

unfortunately though - kind connotations are extremely successful and if they take hold, they keep their footing with fangs

Look at Happy Meals, Google, and Hug-A-Gun.

I truly believe the "Cloud" concept will be indoctrinated as advancing social media (as seen in the first MS commercials using the "Cloud" term)- tied in with the growing "need" for mobile computing, wi-fi devices, and data on the go, it will get people buying into it....literally.

How will it affect users Open Source preferences?
Would it be legal for "Cloud" Providers to discriminate against certain types of products, arguing compatibility/security issues?

 

[lehnerus2000]

You'd better believe it

Would it be legal for "Cloud" Providers to discriminate against certain types of products, arguing compatibility/security issues?

You'd better believe it.

That's another advantage that the "Cloud" provides software companies.
Currently I can install Windows and any Office-type program of my choosing.
If my OS is in the "Cloud", they have 100% control over what programs I am allowed to use.

If for some strange reason it is currently illegal (in the US) the politicians will change the law.
A Right-wing Administration would probably cite "National Security" as the reason, so Right-wing voters won't kick up a stink.
I'm not sure what excuse a Left-wing Administration would use.

 

[Colonel Travis]

What the heck is/was Hug-A-Gun?!?!?!

Couple thoughts:
1.) I don't doubt a bunch of people will be suckered into this nonsense. But if it is absolute, sincere nonsense, I trust the marketplace to ultimately squash it. The name itself - CLOUD - is as amorphous as whatever the hell it stands for.

Cloud People: Hey, buy this.
Normal People: Hey, screw you.

Overcoming that kind of market hurdle is not easy. However, it leads to Thought 2.

2.) The Your tech career depends on preparing for the cloud story directly contradicts a story it links to about how the U.S. government is taking a cloud-first approach to IT. Technically, it contradicts the story upon which it is based: a Washington Post story, called Agencies to look for a 'cloud option', which focuses on Jeffrey Zients, the United States' first chief performance officer. Note that the federal government, in order to improve performance, creates a new bureaucracy to take care of this streamlining. That should set off every BS detector ever made, even broken ones and the ones that got buried with every dead person who once roamed the earth. Yes, that's one of the reasons on the list but it ain't the first one. Trust me, I used to work for the federal government for a couple years, which was 1.99999999 years too many. Blind benevolence does not exist with that crowd. The very last paragraph of that story contains this sentence:

Zients outlined the changes at a Northern Virginia Technology Council meeting Friday, and they seemed well received by some in the IT community.

The reporter seemed to think IT people received this cloud notion well. Gee, really? No quotes back that up. No quotes demonstrate dissent or even the tiniest drop of skepticism. Much of my career I was not a bureaucrat but a journalist, and yeah, I've even written for the WP. In J-School if you were caught 250,000 light years near the word "seemed", every prof. would have ripped you a new one. How the hell do you know what someone seemed to think unless you ask them or let everyone know you actually asked? If a great number of IT people in general seem to like the cloud, whatever that is, why did InfoWorld waste its time with its story?

Zients also said: "The government's been trying to do this for a long time . . . but obstacles have always gotten in the way." Obstacles don't just get in the way suddenly or gradually. They're placed there on purpose or by accident, doesn't matter which because the federal government is the biggest obstacle to everything it touches. But the greater issues: what were those obstacles? Are there any potential obstacles once the federal government magically streamlines? What about when everyone else streamlines? What about obstacles that exist now? The WP doesn't know and/or care. Maybe Zients's pen name is Marjorie Censer. She's the reporter who wrote this garbage.

The federal government did not invent the cloud, and it is not yet propelling it. But it would not mind controlling/regulating some portion. That, combined with net neutrality and whatever other tents it sticks its snot-dripping nose into, will make it a major player in how all this shakes out in the U.S. Again, I think the marketplace will ultimately settle this thing. How long that will take or how much nonsense everyone will be forced to endure is a crap shoot.

 

[BCXtreme]

Would it be legal for "Cloud" Providers to discriminate against certain types of products, arguing compatibility/security issues?

You'd better believe it.

That's another advantage that the "Cloud" provides software companies.
Currently I can install Windows and any Office-type program of my choosing.
If my OS is in the "Cloud", they have 100% control over what programs I am allowed to use.

If for some strange reason it is currently illegal (in the US) the politicians will change the law.
A Right-wing Administration would probably cite "National Security" as the reason, so Right-wing voters won't kick up a stink.
I'm not sure what excuse a Left-wing Administration would use.

No, actually a truly right-wing administration wouldn't change that law to begin with. A left-wing administration's excuse would be something along the lines of Apple's "to ensure an experience of equal quality for all users" (slightly paraphrased).

And incidentally, this behavior is currently illegal in the United States, because it falls under antitrust laws. Intentionally limiting compatibility of your products so that they will only work with your (or your "preferred partners'") other products is considered anti-competitive behavior. Companies like Apple tend to get away with it because of lines like the one I quoted that claim that neither Apple nor anyone with whom it has financial ties are benefiting from the policy. Microsoft, however, got in big trouble in the U.S. for doing stuff much less overt than this in the 1990s.

For that reason, I'm pretty sure that under current U.S. law, companies would not be allowed to enforce software restrictions on all major platforms without getting into legal trouble. A right-wing administration would not change those laws simply because they have no need to (in case you haven't noticed, increased government control is not currently on right-wing politicians' wish lists). A left-wing administration would probably like the idea, but they would never want "Big Business" to have that kind of power, they'd want it for themselves.

But now we're getting a little off-topic. Regardless of any political situations, laws, regulations, courts, or anything else, entirely cloud-based computing is a bad idea. Local storage is cheaper and faster than cloud storage, and it's also much more secure. If my data is stored locally, then I know I have pretty much 100% control over both the data itself and what parties are allowed to access it. The exception would be if an uber-hacker decided to spend days cracking and hacking through my router and firewalls for the purpose of releasing my saved game files and CPU temperature logs on the web for all to see [/sarcasm]; and since I'm a person of relatively no importance, even locally, that scenario is pretty unlikely.

On the other hand, on the cloud, with my data stored on servers right along with the data of everyone else and their mothers, any of whom could have anyone else and their mothers out to get them, with security software and protocols controlled by the cloud company (probably via various "financial agreements" with Norton, McAfee, or whoever) rather than hand-picked and hand-configured by me, not to mention the ever-present and cloud-champion-to-be advertising company Google (and others) determined to present me with "tailored advertisements" by using my data to learn "what I want to see" ... well, would you be eager to put every scrap of data you possess, no matter how sensitive, into that environment?! :shock:

 

[Frank1]

The more I hear about Cloud Computing, the more I dislike it. I prefer to have my stuff stored on my computer that's in my house. But I don't know too much about it so I'll just wait and see.

 

[Tepid]

The more I hear about Cloud Computing, the more I dislike it. I prefer to have my stuff stored on my computer that's in my house. But I don't know too much about it so I'll just wait and see.

You already know enough.

The alternative is the exact opposite to your statement.
There is no more to know about it.