Cloud Computing

[Vince53]

Is there anyone else out there who is interested in cloud computing?

 

[pgp_protector]

Not personally, I tend to like to keep my data local, I've had too many times when networks go down & I can't access either my apps or my data.

 

[Däniël1]

I haven't looked too much into it .. but most of the students and faculty in the computer science and engineering department at my university are interested in it. Seems to be getting a lot of attention lately.

 

[AMOG]

Interested, but not doing it.

 

[Peripatetic]

Yep, I've moved quite a bit of my personal and professional stuff into the cloud... docs, to-dos, notes, email, etc. The best thing about it is the ability to sync across platforms (Windows and iOS) and devices (work, home, phone, iPad, etc.) Even little things like syncing browser bookmarks is a big help when you have different machines. It took a bit of doing to get it all set up, but it's really worth it.

 

[sunlover1]

Yep, I've moved quite a bit of my personal and professional stuff into the cloud... docs, to-dos, notes, email, etc. The best thing about it is the ability to sync across platforms (Windows and iOS) and devices (work, home, phone, iPad, etc.) Even little things like syncing browser bookmarks is a big help when you have different machines. It took a bit of doing to get it all set up, but it's really worth it.

I'm in the process of moving all of my docs to google docs and I am just
messing around with 'dropbox', hoping to back up most of my files before
bringing my macbook in for (probably) exchange.

 

[muddlion]

I have had some good experience with cloud hosting, it really meets my needs and is very easy to use once it is set established. I had alot of questions at first but the company I went with helped me all the way if you really want to do it go with ServerIntellect.com enjoy

 

[new_wine]

We have been cloud computing for years, it is not new. The majority of the net is cloud computing. ATM's are cloud computing, swiping your card at a restaurant, that's the cloud too.

The issue is will it be better than it was in 70s when we connected clients to a mainframe and had to buy time to do work?

If it is ad supported like TV, then be prepared for being spammed like never before.

Is there anyone else out there who is interested in cloud computing?

 

[davidkiwi]

I played around with the Azure platform for a bit while it was still in CTP phase. I could immediately see certain very specific uses for which it would be immediately suitable, and when I looked at blurbs about apps that were live from day one, many tended to reinforce my own thoughts.

In terms of serious business applications that definitely need a dedicated infrastructure, there are various scenarios that make cloud platforms likely to be a very cost effective strategy, and they all tend to have to do with scalability...

- Start-ups where growth cannot be very well predicted. Whether you have 1 customer or 10,000 after a month your cost will be proportionate to users and therefore proportionate to revenue. Big investment in hardware could otherwise be a massive gamble. Remember, more than hardware we are talking ongoing maintenance such as backups, system admin.
- Applications where usage is in periodic spikes. An online ticketing agency would be an example, where usage may be very minimal most of the time, but then spikes in massive loads over short bursts when tickets go on sale for some event.
- Applications where software development costs might be shared by mulitiple entities within a specific industry, but where each of those entities might be reluctant to committing to the ongoing headache of some form of sharing hardware. So, let's say for arguments sake, a group of Real Estate companies decide to jointly develop vertical-market software for their industry, by choosing a cloud solution the ongoing cost becomes "pay as you use". Similar to SaaS apps such as SalesForce.

I'd still like to return to doing some stuff with Azure one day (I am a big .NET fan, and Azure is obviously tailormade for developers whose skills are MS products).

 

[Questioner2]

A warrant is not needed (only a subpoena) is required for the government to access your data on a remote computing service or opened email after 6 months. Cloud computing is remote computing so be careful who you trust your data with.

Sources:
grc.com/sn/sn-185.htm
law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00002703----000-.html

 

[Bungle_Bear]

The issue is will it be better than it was in 70s when we connected clients to a mainframe and had to buy time to do work?

Mainframe is not cloud computing. With a mainframe you know where your data resides. With cloud you don't know where your data resides.

A warrant is not needed (only a subpoena) is required for the government to access your data on a remote computing service or opened email after 6 months. Cloud computing is remote computing so be careful who you trust your data with.

Don't trust anyone. Think carefully about the sensitivity of any data you store or process in the cloud. For cloud storage ensure all your data is stored encrypted. If you're using cloud applications then be aware that at present that processing is not secure.

 

[Blayz]

I run Myth-Weavers - Powered by vBulletin on the cloud. And that's direct, no silly 3rd party provider in the middle.

cloud computing is the shiz, as the kids say. There is nothing like re-imaging a snapshot and spinning up a clone dev server in 10 minutes, or simply attaching an extra 100G harddrive in about the same time

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Mainframe is not cloud computing. With a mainframe you know where your data resides. With cloud you don't know where your data resides.

You can actually have internal clouds so technically you would know where you're data was.

There was actually a data center in Australia which closed its doors suddenly last year I think and I don't think customers got their data back!

 

[new_wine]

The cloud is but an over-simplified way of say client/server network. Which is what a client connecting to a mainframe, mini-frame, whatever you call it. We all are doing this client connect to server thing when we use the internet. Or when we use an ATM.

And we know where the data is if you follow the trail. But most people don't know what a client/server environment is. This don't use terms like thin clients. Because they are not the people in the business market selling them to people who have been convinced their Apple computer is no longer a Personal Computer, a PC.

Mainframe is not cloud computing. With a mainframe you know where your data resides. With cloud you don't know where your data resides.

 

[Dark_Lite]

The cloud is but an over-simplified way of say client/server network. Which is what a client connecting to a mainframe, mini-frame, whatever you call it. We all are doing this client connect to server thing when we use the internet. Or when we use an ATM.

And we know where the data is if you follow the trail. But most people don't know what a client/server environment is. This don't use terms like thin clients. Because they are not the people in the business market selling them to people who have been convinced their Apple computer is no longer a Personal Computer, a PC.

Well, it's really more of a "managed infrastructure." With cloud computing, you're (generally) not maintaining the "hardware" that your servers or applications run on. The magical cloud voodoo handles all scalability and hardware concerns.

It's true that the "core" of cloud computing has existed for many years. Virtualization has been gaining plenty of traction over the last decade. But the flexible services we see today (App Engine, EC2, Azure, private clouds) are what really make cloud computing cloud computing. These environments are designed specifically to reduce/eliminate infrastructure management headaches.

It's more than a buzzword, albeit not much more.

 

[sphsjags]

Having just graduated from college, I use Gmail all the time to send myself papers and stuff. That way no matter where I am I will have access to it. Granted, every time I revise it I have to send a new email; it isn't that big of a problem. I've also recently started using Google Docs a little. I don't think I would ever want to move completely to the cloud, but it's a nice system for the reasons I use it

 

[EphesiaNZ]

I should imagine sometime in the coming future we will revert back to local storage and desktop applications again for whatever reason. The IT industry is just about reinventing the wheel, over and over.

Whatever you do with data on the cloud make sure you have a local copy as backup.

 

[pgp_protector]

I should imagine sometime in the coming future we will revert back to local storage and desktop applications again for whatever reason. The IT industry is just about reinventing the wheel, over and over.

Whatever you do with data on the cloud make sure you have a local copy as backup.

And your cloud copy encrypted or at least stuff you don't mind being public

 

[Dark_Lite]

And your cloud copy encrypted or at least stuff you don't mind being public

What kind of cloud service are you using? Dropbox encrypts with AES-256. I'm sure most do the same.

I guess if you don't want The Man snooping around...

I'm pretty paranoid about online security, but I'm not *that* paranoid (except for files that shouldn't be plaintext, like ones with password) usually.

Although, to be honest, if I could have transparent local encryption/decryption with Dropbox I'd probably use it. Wouldn't be too hard to write a program that would do it. Use a separate directory to store the plain files. The daemon watches said directory for changes, then copies and encrypts all files to your dropbox directory.

 

[loveU11]

Having just graduated from college, I use Gmail all the time to send myself papers and stuff. That way no matter where I am I will have access to it. Granted, every time I revise it I have to send a new email; it isn't that big of a problem. I've also recently started using Google Docs a little. I don't think I would ever want to move completely to the cloud, but it's a nice system for the reasons I use it

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who uses Gmail to store backups to school papers and other important documents! (I also have an upgraded gmail storage for my Picasa that includes Gmail so I should use it more than I do.)