Cloud computing, a new and exciting way a third party
company offers users the ability to save their personal applications,
documents, computer preferences, and personal information on a server so that
it is all accessible from any computer – anywhere in the world. Gaining
momentum and popularity amongst users, cloud computing is a tool that is meant
to connect people of the 21st century to their technological lives
remotely and efficiently by giving them a hub to save and access their
computer’s content as if it were their personal hard drive.
The history of cloud computing does not span very far back.
The start of this technology grew with the development of the Internet,
servers, and truly flourished with the rise of large Internet server databases
such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and American Instant Messenger. The growth of user
trust in saving their documents and information in the form of email on such
large servers with the convenience of being able to access it from any given
computer with internet connection gave start to the new era of server dependent
information storage. Today, with the world spinning faster than ever before,
society is in search for solutions that can replace the slow technologies of
the past with newer and faster ones that will be as swift and efficient as the
people of the the 21st century.
In essence, cloud computing is simply a user’s browser
communicating with a main server and asking it for information. Servers are
used in several different respects by almost all computers in order to access
information desired by the user that is not stored on the user’s hard drive.
Web based servers and personal browsers work together in a very consistent
manner through protocols and connections in order to deliver information to the
user. It all begins at the user’s end while surfing the web and they request an
access to a web page. Once the request
has been made, the user’s browser breaks down the request into three parts:
host name, domain name, and top-level domain name. An example would be if a
user is on Carnegie Mellon University’s home page and after seeing the
advertisements for this year’s graduation keynote speaker, Patrick Wilson, decides to read
more into it and clicks the “read more” link, the process to retrieve that
information begins. The link the user is trying to access reads “http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/society/2012/spring/wilson-to-address-grads.shtml”
and the user’s browser begins by breaking this link down into three simpler
parts; the protocol (“http”), the server name (“www.cmu.edu”), and the file
name “homepage/society/2012/spring/wilson-to-address-grads.shtml”. Because
humans remember words and phrases much easier than arrays of numbers, servers
are given masking names that are in word form and parallel the numerical ID
that the computers and servers communicate in (8 number IDs called IP
addresses). This causes an additional step in the process of accessing a link
because the browser then needs to take the server name and accesses a set of
servers called the Domain Name Servers, which serve as the directory for IP address,
and derives the IP address translation for the given server. Once the browser
receives www.cmu.edu ‘s IP address, the browser communicates with the
Carnegie Mellon server and asks for the file “homepage/society/2012/spring/wilson-to-address-grads.shtml”.
The Carnegie Mellon server then sends the HTML text for the requested web page
to the browser. The browser then translates the HTML text and formats it into a
legible and stylized version that appears on the user’s screen. Like this,
cloud computing works through a set of communication connections and protocols
between the browser and the servers where the user’s information is being
stored.
There is no difference between cloud computing and Web
servers for they are both built and meant for storing and accessing
information. Both of these mechanisms allow you to edit pages, revisit them,
and access it from any computer in the world that is connected to the Internet.
The only thing that sets cloud computing apart from normal web servers is the
way in which its used is applied. Cloud computing’s uniqueness is anchored in
the way in which people are provided with a setup that is displayed in a
fashion that is identical to formats that they are used to and allows them to
function and save to this server in a way appears familiar to them. The only
change that exists between cloud computing and normal computer application is
where the files are ending up at the end of the session – in a server located
in a hub sum thousands of miles away.
Hosting as a cloud computing server is not an easy job due
to the complexities and complications that can arise from thin air. As a server
host it is important to account for and take all precautions to protect your
users’ information. With the common failure and crashing of servers, server
hosts must always have their information backed up on more than one secondary
device – much like individuals tend to back up their hard drives on USBs or
other external devices. But these precautions and server set ups are extremely
expensive, and can only be afforded by a hand full of the largest leading
companies of this century that have both user trust and the funds to implement
and support a network for cloud computing. Currently the most eligible
companies for this job include Apple Inc, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon
– and some of them such as Apple and Google have already gotten a head start on
building such a network for public cloud computing.
Apple’s recent development of MobileMe, an application that
syncs up all of your apple products, constantly updating ones products
cohesively, has offered users the ability to access their personal updated
information from any device synced to the user’s own personal network, around
the globe for an annual subscription fee. Now, with the update to iCloud, Apple
has established itself as the first to popularize cloud computing by making it
easily and readily available to the public. Allowing users 5GB of free storage
space and authorize up to 10 devices to access your Apple information, the
technology has been gaining momentum and awareness. Users have become spoiled
by the ease of having all of their personal information, applications,
settings, and documents readily available at a click of a screen – any screen. Google
has also begun investing its abilities in cloud computing with its “Google
Docs” online application offering a service for easily accessible documents all
saved up onto Google’s servers. As a free service, Google’s “Google Docs”
application has proven to appeal greatly to users and has served as a
convenient hub for user collaboration and interaction with their editable
spreadsheets and documents.
Currently, the future is looking bright and clear for web
and technology companies Apple Inc. and Google due to a new partnership – an
effort to build a network for public cloud computing. Proving to be the perfect
pair for the job, Apple with its ever-changing innovative developments of hardware
technology and Google’s enormous server network and database experience, they both
have plenty to bring to the table in setting the stage for public cloud
computing and bringing it to the next level.
In theory, cloud computing sounds like a brilliant plan, but
many worry that when executed, the drawbacks may outweigh the benefits.
The benefits of cloud computing seem endless, and for some
users are worth overlooking the negative aspects. In my opinion, the true
destiny of cloud computing will lie in the way in which it caters to different
computing and storage needs – if it can provide enough worthwhile features to
be useful for the majority of the public, cloud computing will it will provide
convenience and ease for some and will be rendered useless for others.
Benefits of cloud computing include:
·
Cheaper Hardware Prices – larger servers (no cd
drive, no USB drives, no hard drive) everything will be run wireless because
anything plug-in will be uncommon (USBs, external hard drives, etc)
·
Ability to access personal
documents/applications/etc from any device any where
·
Increase connected-mobility
·
Will de-personalize personal computers – any
computer/device can act as your personal comp (including personal settings and
such)
·
Easier for companies to distribute software and
buy applications (wont need to buy a software license for every computer at the
company – just one for their server)
·
Easy for the user to manage – no change on the
forefront of the screen (the only real change happens behind the scenes and is
nothing the user has to worry about)
Concerns for a future with cloud computing
·
Information security
·
Intellectual property identification – if its
all out there then who does it belong to? And what is the extent of the
ownership? If someone manipulates someone else’s intellectual property, whose
is it? the manipulator or the original creator?
·
Eliminate demand for IT jobs (Technical Support)
·
Will draw a lot of electricity and power in
order to cool the large servers that are supporting/storing the cloud
information
With lots of excitement, cloud computing is sure to become a
computing system of the future. The
popularization of cloud computing could change the application of the World
Wide Web forever. Computing will become a matter of the Internet, as the technology
will run solely on Internet connection – much like the World Wide Web. Unique
for its ability to be accessed from any computer and with swiftness and ease,
the world wide web has developed a method and system that will now be applied
to a new application – cloud computing. In context of the World Wide Web, cloud
computing is important because it takes the entire computing experience to the
same level of convenience as the web. The World Wide Web will serve
cloud-computing junkies as an example and a learning device for figuring out
the current kinks, flaws, and concerns with virtual computing. The technology,
having been present and right before our eyes for years, seems to have been
perfected and if made big enough, will be able to run cloud computing for the
rest of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment