Cloud Computing

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 21^st 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 21^st 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.