NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, November 2011
What’s All This Cloud Stuff, Anyhow?*
By Greg Skalka, President,
UCHUG (Under the Computer Hood UG), California
July 2011 issue, DriveLight

http://www.uchug.org
president (at) uchug.org (click to email author)

Cloud computing is supposed to be the next big thing. Microsoft has commercials showing people delayed at an airport watching TV show episodes “in the cloud”. Lots of big companies like Amazon, HP, IBM, Dell and AT&T are pushing their own version of the “cloud”. Even Apple is introducing iCloud. What does it really mean? Will our stuff be in the public cloud, private cloud or both? Is it going to give us more capabilities, help us save money and have all our stuff available anywhere we want it, or will we only get rain and overcast from the “cloud?”

Cloud computing involves getting data, applications and services over the Internet. You might have your photos, music and other files stored on someone else’s servers, rather than on your computer. This would allow you to access those files from any computer connected to the Internet. You might run web-based applications that allow you to perform the same functions as an office productivity suite, like document and spreadsheet creation, without having any office software installed on your PC. You might get your email through a web-based system and interface. For all the hype, though, it seems that “cloud” is just another word for the Internet.

Is the cloud just a return to the dumb terminals connected to the computer mainframe model of computing, with the Internet now doing the connecting?

Most of us are already doing things in the cloud. If you have used Google Gmail on the web, filed your taxes with the online version of TurboTax, shared photos on Flickr or checked out your friends on Facebook, you’ve had your head in the cloud. Even if you host photos on your (home) network hard drive that can be accessed by others over the Internet, that is your own private cloud. Think about that the next time you are using Amazon’s Cloud Drive to store and listen to your MP3 of The Rolling Stones’ “Get Off Of My Cloud.”

One thing that appears obvious to me is that we are each dealing with more information, larger files and larger bandwidth streams than ever before. Without a high-bandwidth Internet connection, cloud computing would not be feasible for an individual. No one will be accessing the cloud with dial-up. As our files get larger, passing them between the cloud and your PC takes more time or bandwidth. While some might be pushing more megapixels in digital cameras and advocating streaming HD video, these trends further challenge the utility of the cloud concept.

Using cloud storage can be great way to share photos and videos. It is about the only way to share the large JPEG files that new 10+ megapixel cameras take. You sure can’t email those large files, and no one wants to wait for the CD (or DVD) of photos from the family gathering to arrive in the mail. The problem with the cloud is it can still take a long time to upload and download large files, even with a broadband Internet connection.

This indicates to me that the cloud concept could be a farce in some cases. Every new camera I buy has more megapixels, but if I have to spend hours uploading the photos from my camera to the cloud, and people spend hours tediously downloading, it does not seem like progress. If I have to resize my photos to put them in the cloud (as my primary, or only storage), then why are these camera manufacturers working so hard to sell me on more resolution?

And don’t get me started on the security concerns of computing in the cloud, or you’ll really have me singing “Get Off Of My Cloud.”

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