The World of Cloud Computing

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing is a type of computing in which a system, network or process is able to provide massive amounts of work and virtualized material over the internet. It takes computing resources, such as, processing and databases from somewhere other than what is in ones reach and allows them to store it on a central service and pay only for what they use. This allows consumers to use the services (servers, storage etc.) of these companies as long as they pay for it. There are three different types of cloud computing as addressed by Tim O’Rielly, Utility Computing, Platform as a Service, and Cloud-based end-user applications. A popular example of cloud computing is Facebook (Cloud-based end-user application) because software engineers develop applications to be used on the site.
The term Cloud is used as a metaphor for Internet because the abstraction of the internet and its complex communications. Through cloud computing, people are allowed to share or download music and videos, and use storage among many other things.

What are the benefits and disadvantages of cloud computing for an ordinary computer user?

Cloud Computing allows ordinary computer users to store information on a computing device and retrieve it from another. This is beneficial in case information is loss or erased on one device it will be available on another. By being able to store information on other servers, this saves consumers from having to invest in multiple machines to store data. Furthermore, cloud computing allows users to share music and videos in a simple manner. Cloud computing is said to be easier and more sufficient when it comes to storing data and it is becoming a great advancement in technology for its customers.
Cloud computing can be risky. Many people are worried that information that needs to be secure will not be because it is roaming around in the infrastructure if the cloud. While data is retrievable from sources other than home-base, this could be detrimental if important information is put into the wrong hands. Users are also putting the responsibility of holding information into the hands of the provider and if there is a massive break down in the system, all information will be loss. In addition to the loss of information, cloud computing is said to not give much freedom to the users of which applications and servers can be used. If a user is willing to invest in a service provider, they should be able to use whichever application or service they choose.

What are the benefits and disadvantages of cloud computing for a start-up company?

Cloud computing present’s major benefits for start-up companies. Because cloud computing relies on separate providers, companies do not have to invest in people to manage the storage of data and the machines it will take to manage the data; this action saves time and money it would take to have to hire an administration team. In addition, cloud computing brings a lot of business to the starter companies when they are allowed to put applications on major websites. As shown in the Animoto video, when the application was placed onto Facebook, the number of users drastically increased. This was good for Animoto because it word got out about the company and brought more business. The NY Times article stated that because the application was put on Facebook, “nearly 750,000 people signed up in 3 days.” The rapid amount of information was able to be managed by the service provider through cloud computing.
On-the-other-hand, as stated in the Tim O’Rielly piece people think of cloud computing as a chance for big businesses like Microsoft, Google and Amazon to monopolize the usage of cloud computing. The cost to use the services will also get expensive, meaning the major corporations are the only ones that can pay for it, as a result, start-up companies have to answer to the larger companies. It will take away some profit of their business because they will have to pay to use the services and store information on the servers that the big businesses own. Cloud computing is projected to be a multi-trillion dollar industry and it will be hard for a start-up company to get a piece of that without having to go through a major corporation.

What are the social dangers of cloud computing? That is, why might people be uneasy about the whole world's documents being stored on GoogleDocs instead of on local machines?

The social dangers of cloud computing reside in the amount of information received or put out. The idea of important information from an individual or big business being unsecure and available in other areas is risky. With the advancement in today’s technology, it would not be too difficult for someone to hack into a computer system and intercept data traveling through the cloud.
Also, this is a worldwide concept and different governments have different regulations. For example, Google opted to expand to China, but the Chinese governments’ limits certain information that is available to its citizens, so Google had to rearrange its characteristics to fit the expectations of the Chinese government. This lowered the usage of the Google search and put it in competition with a popular Chinese search engine Baidu.com. This is difficult when the advancement of cloud computing cannot be utilized due to government censorships and regulations.