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Up, up, and away

Wednesday, February 16, 2011 by cyberacoustics


What exactly is the cloud? It's not an entirely new concept, but the newest buzzword tagged to the process of storing your applications, files, and media on a third-party server.

cloud computing server based storage

For example, if you have a gmail account, your emails exist on Google's servers, technically not on your computer. Chances are, you've been operating in the cloud for years, and you just didn't know it. This is also known as "cloud computing."

Cloud computing will be the dominant method for computing in the future. The application of cloud computing is already being used on a daily basis and is widely accepted by many people.

A great example is the program Evernote. Using the Evernote app, you can create a note on your phone while taking the train to work, then sync it with your Evernote account. Once at work, fire up Evernote on your computer and access the same note.

Another example of a popular and highly used cloud computing format is Netflix. You can start watching Superman II on your Xbox 360, continue watching it at the gym on your iPhone, then finish it on your iPad while sitting in bed.

Using photo-sharing sites like Flickr or Photobucket, you can save hundreds of photos to the cloud. Or, using a browser like Google Chrome, you can save all your bookmarks and access them on another computer that uses Chrome also. Shoot, even Facebook is a giant cloud service housing your information, videos, and photos.  

Pretty nice, right? The only thing I worry about is the user losing control of their data. Cloud computing makes all your information live on a server who-knows-where and managed by who-knows-who.

That's a big problem for me. I don't want to end up like that poor photographer who lost 4,000 photos on his Flickr account.

I know what you're going to tell me - with any growing technology, there's going to be bumps in the road. How big are the bumps going to be? 

There's no doubt that the cloud is becoming the standard for data storage. I guess I'm going to have to buck up and live with it. If we can just convince Apple to house our iTunes collection in the cloud, I might start to enjoy reaching for the sky. 

- Steve Murphy - CFO, Cyber Acoustics
