An Essential Tool for Cloud Computing
What is the single most desperate problem with our reliance on information technology? Computers fail. There are several sound ways to prepare for failure, but they all have one thing in common: a measure of human diligence, timeliness and an element of chance. It doesn’t matter whether you spend $100 or $10,000, data is never guaranteed safe.
No matter how frequently one backs up that data, there is a tangible risk of loss. Hard drives die, compact discs warp, and both are easily misplaced. Moreover, software changes, becoming incompatible with saved data over time. The rapidly growing trend of so-called “Cloud Computing” promises to ease our burden by making valuable data more independent from our machines, although it is by no means a panacea.
We’ve been computing in the cloud to varying degrees for decades. However, with faster connections, cheaper storage and increasingly portable computers (netbooks), the practice is catching on in ways never thought possible. It started with services such as HotMail and Yahoo Mail. With either of them, email was safe and accessible (notwithstanding spam), so long as you didn’t have more than 25MB.
From a web once dominated by static HTML sites and complex search indexes rose companies like Google with their world-renown search technology. Microsoft and Yahoo cleared the skies for cloud computing, but it was Google that blasted across them. What was once unheard of became commonplace. Consumers could sign up for Google Mail and receive a virtually limitless amount of storage for their daily email. Email made was safe for many, but what about our files and programs? The public slowly grew accustomed to cloud computing, setting the stage for truly grand pursuits.
While cloud computing may also be referred to as the use of web applications or network computing, neither have the same ring. From a business standpoint, if a concept is going to take hold, its name often makes or breaks the deal. The alliteration of cloud computing rolls off the tongue with ease, making it an IT marketing manager’s dream! A cloud implies much more than email or file storage. It envisions an ethereal world of limitless possibilities. So what exactly does it offer us, and how does it keep our data safe and make us technologically independent?
Imagine the grim scenario where your house or apartment is lost in fire. Your computer is reduced to ash, and that shiny backup drive with your entire life’s worth of documents and photos shares the same fate. Even if you own a laptop, chances are that your still in a pretty tight spot at that point.
Nonetheless, it doesn’t take such extreme circumstances to yield similarly disastrous results. Accidentally dropped your laptop? Hard drive clicking? Desktop shorted out after a storm? Either way you’ll be scrambling to pick up the pieces. Assuming you can save the data, you’re still faced with reinstalling and reconfiguring all of the software, which often entails hours of downloading. What if all of your applications and files lived on the Internet and were accessed them on demand? Such is the promise of cloud computing as enjoyed in-part by early adopters of web email.
Google Chrome is on the horizon, and it promises to begin a shift toward complete cloud computing. A laptop with Google Chrome will require an Internet connection, but it accesses all programs and data over that connection. Lose that laptop or back over it with a forklift? That’s okay because when you get another you may instantly resume working right where you left off! Cloud apps: Google Docs, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Pandora (my personal favorite) form the cornerstones of the movement. It’s a notion no longer foreign to old industry juggernauts. Microsoft is now touting Office Live, which offers free online creation, use, and storage of Office documents (mirroring the functionality of Google Docs).
What’s the thunderhead of cloud computing? Hackers have already shown us with stolen Twitter, Facebook, and GMail accounts: risk is transferred from the physical storage to digital protection of your data. The world’s best security is rendered useless with passwords like “God” or “Password1″. Cloud computing or not, a little common sense applies to keep your data safe, sanity in check, and systems available.
The chances of breaking into your house and stealing that new laptop are relatively small, but by the same token the odds of a malicious robot from China cracking into a GMail account, wiping out emails, and stealing your identity are much higher. Some claim the dangers of cloud computing make it altogether too hazardous, therefore impractical. I tend to disagree vehemently. With a little forethought and a nod to basic security practices, one can easily underscore the benefits and avoid the drawbacks of computing in the cloud.
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
-Benjamin Franklin
Cloud apps are money in the bank (a lot of them are free) and fewer things to worry about when your system fails (tip: don’t kid yourself, it will). Moreover, the requirements for computers capable of cloud computing are lower. Therefore once again saving us money; they inevitably cost less. Cloud computing: it saves time, money, and potentially a life’s worth of work. It’s safely accessible from anywhere in the world. If it’s liberation from consumer technology that you seek, then look no further.
