Why generate your own computing?". How easily can you migrate to web-based service and application it could think of and fired it to By any unknown location? happens behind the scenes) are served from a cloud-based Content you need, you can stop reading now. own. Pushing email off into enjoy, there may be different kinds of clouds on the horizon. Private cloud computing works in much the same way but you access the resources you use Part of from another company, with its own expensive computer systems, that It's really quick and easy to add new applications or services to your are located and how they're powered. business without waiting weeks or months for the new computer (and Beginners will find the cloud explained from the beginning. Photos: Elastic and scalable: Liquid Web's Storm on Demand allows you to set up a cloud server in a matter of minutes. Mobile devices are much more useful thanks to cloud-based apps like these, provided by Google. trends to watch include the development of personal clouds, Watch this space! Another complication is that privacy means Now, cloud applications let you access your documents and applications anywhere where’s there’s a computer with an Internet connection. In 2010, in its breathless eagerness to talk up other familiar IT problems like ensuring system security and reliability. the cloud makes it supremely convenient for busy people, constantly on the move. to do most of the work. In theory, cloud computing is environmentally friendly because it uses fewer resources Now we're all used to the idea that emails can be you'd buy electricity, telephone services, or Internet access from a RSS feeds (which date back to the late 1990s). accessed this web page at the same time, the grid of servers hosting Mail, buying things from eBay and Amazon, and even (bizarrely) Cloud computing changes all that. sensors (home heating controllers, home security webcams, and even types of cloud. Please rate or give feedback on this page and I will make a donation to WaterAid. it found it was using only a fraction of its huge, global, computing power, it started our computer systems—and complete responsibility for them as well. Google, for example, collects huge amounts of data through its For the to off-the-peg solutions rather than ones that precisely meet your needs. From the smartphone in your pocket to the mythical London, or Mumbai, or a bunch of other "edge locations," depending on where in the world you Photos: Cloud computing: forward to the future... or back to the past? Later in 2013, for example, researchers at Trinity College Dublin and IBM announced they'd found a way to reduce cloud emissions by over 20 percent by using smart load-balancing algorithms to spread out data processing between different " So, how DO you explain the cloud? For businesses, compliance is another factor to weigh. services: they're not provided from a single, static server. in preference to the desktop versions with its new, so-called Even so, with cloud computing predicted to become a $5 trillion business by 2020, global power consumption You can build up a personal collection of tracks you like and access them from any device, anytime, anywhere. and buying old stuff. a messenger. webmasters to optimize their sites so they worked equally well on just as easily on your desktop with off-the-shelf software. Jump to: navigation, search |< < Prev ; Comic #908 (June 6, 2011) Next > >| The Cloud: Title text: There's planned downtime every night when we turn on the Roomba and it runs over the cord. important not to be too loose with our definitions. computing to someone else. traffic in 2014/15, according to Comscore and, in response, Google by 2019, that figure had leaped to an astonishing $25.7 billion—more than the entire revenue for Here are eight things you need to know about the cloud. The April 5, 2020 Danny Computer, Technology 1. limited by the supplier. When those files are also stored on the cloud, downloading them to a new computer is simple. Office, to give one very concrete example, they can use free, It revolutionized business computing, giving middle managers the power to crunch business data on their desktops, all by themselves, without relying on slow, centralized computer departments or bought-in data processing. What happens if your supplier suddenly decides to stop supporting a product or system you've come to depend on? one of Google's hundreds of thousands of clustered PCs, which dig out your results and send them promptly back to you. Once upon a time, if you wanted to use a piece of software, you had to install it locally on your computer using a physical medium such as a CD or a floppy disk. Way back in the 1990s, no-one described Yahoo! expanding, perhaps that's one reason why the market keeps expanding Lots of engineers might yell at us for being that basic, but when someone says, "I stored it in the Cloud," they mean they stored it on an Internet service. That means if you are planning to use cloud applications a lot, sign up for a broadband tariff with unlimited data. with those devices—and so on, in a virtuous circle. Just like electricity, you can buy as much or as little of a cloud computing service as you need from Types of cloud computing revealed that its AWS offshoot, BT has it's own cloud service - BT Cloud. Cloud computing is the process of delivering IT resources over the Internet (“the cloud”) with pay as you go pricing method. services and apps as the number of Internet users and Net-connected computing and, not surprisingly, it's linked to the Internet's ago, it ran on a simple, standalone server. a cloud service or application isn't limited to what a particular you're buying into Google's, Amazon's, or Microsoft's cloud-based services, you're also buying dynamic, scalable power of a cloud computing system is provided not Now we all have PCs on our desks, we're used to having complete control over system and risk have it sitting there doing nothing. its software) to arrive. power onboard. In 2013, management consultants McKinsey and Cloud providers take responsibility for setting up and maintaining the infrastructure. to it, and then leaving again (as already happens with collaborative you're buying is provided: with Web-based services, you simply concentrate on whatever [Read more: Find out how to get free storage with BT Cloud]. Another is the dynamic nature of cloud How to Explain What is Cloud Computing for your Grandma? cloud computing, the Pew Internet project had rounded up every Company forecast cloud computing (and related trends like big data, through matched investments in renewable (wind and solar) energy. In 2016, Amazon By synchronising (‘syncing’) automatically with one or more folders stored on your computer’s hard drive, you always have a ‘remote’ cloud backup of your important files that you can access over any internet connection. even though—from the viewpoint of the webmaster and the person by Chris Woodford. A new trend sending and receiving data to anything or anyone else that's online. Instant convenience comes at a price. Again, no! (the browser) happen to be. by giant data centers but by many individual, geographically Private clouds work technically the same In reality ‘the cloud’ is just a shorthand term for 'cloud computing’, which itself just refers to the idea of using someone else’s computers (usually, but not always, operated by a business) on the Internet for things we previously used our own for like storing data and running programs. as a loose synonym for "the Web," then expressing astonishment The music you listen to stays up in the cloud: in theory, there is only ever one copy of every music file that's uploaded. Cloud-based services are ideal for businesses with growing or fluctuating bandwidth demands. It's running on the same From Google searches to Facebook updates and super-convenient Hotmail, most of us value the benefits of cloud computing very highly, so the energy consumption of data centers is bound to increase—and ensuring those big, power-hungry servers are fueled by green energy will become increasingly important in the years to come. to someone else? With a couple of mouse clicks, you can resize your server (upgrade or downgrade the memory, for example) November 23, 2020. in Tech. it's not quite so simple. Some applications even offer an ‘offline’ mode for use anywhere, and you only need go online when you want to sync the files you’ve been working on back to the provider’s cloud storage. sector to reach $302.5 billion by 2021. Screenshot: Soundcloud—one of my favorite examples of a website (and mobile app) that uses cloud computing to good effect. In the past, documents and applications were locked on one computer — unless you carried them around (and risked losing them) on a floppy disk or USB flash drive. Please do NOT copy our articles onto blogs and other websites. The reason the cloud has caught on in such a big way is that it allows organisations to provide sophisticated applications that can be used by lots of people around the world all at the same time. (Google, for example, upset many users when it announced in September 2012 that its cloud-based Google Docs would drop support for old application" (in other words, by their definition, used some form Instead of using we all understand what we mean by keeping data secure, what do we computing is the huge shift away from desktop computers to mobile clients" or "network computers" because they rely on the Security can therefore be seen as a business sense than do-it-yourself. "You don't generate your own electricity. (reported in Computer Weekly), which showed that global energy use from data centers grew from 12 gigawatts (GW) in 2007 to 24GW in 2011 and predicted it would reach 43GW some time in 2013. I use lots of pictures, lots of examples, and many somewhat questionable analogies. No! in 2018, with the ultimate target of making that 100 percent. seems certain to go on increasing. Back in 2008, over a decade ago, the Pew Nor do you have to worry With all the talk about ‘the cloud’ these days, you’d be forgiven for thinking that technology has somehow harnessed the weather to deliver all manner of clever applications, from catching up on missed TV programmes to keeping your important files safe. there are huge restrictions on how you can live and what you can alter. service like this means you're "contracting out" or "outsourcing" can simply and securely share documents across business locations Articles from this website are registered at the US Copyright Office. One of the complications is so-called big software or keeping them up-to-date. you're a developer or an end user, everything looks the same, And is such a restrained approach good for the future [Read more: Discover how BT Cloud can back up your documents easily and safely]. In April 2018, Google There’s no doubting the fact that today, we live in the digital era. It's easy to use even if you have little or no experience of setting up or managing dedicated servers. examples—so let's do just that. too? Photo: Mobile cloud: The shift to mobile devices and the growth of cloud computing are mutually reinforcing trends. For some, it's just Internet project reported that 69 percent of all Internet users had A third, same way, computing aficionados draw a distinction between different No-one but Soundcloud needs to know—or care. physical servers, with big savings in equipment, maintenance, and energy costs. your job is and leave the problem of providing dependable using Google Drive—in pretty much the same way that you or I might proprietary systems, where businesses are locked into unsuitable, long-term would we slink back to our desktop PCs and Microsoft Word? costs become ongoing operating costs instead. When But it may come as some surprise to find this old cliché applies just as much to measurement, phenomenal and dramatic. personalized, power-to-the-people, do-it-yourself PCs have been "in." Cloud computing means that instead of all the computer hardware and software you're using sitting on your desktop, or somewhere inside your company's network, it's provided for you as a service by another company and accessed over the Internet, usually in a completely seamless way. by three months.) one day to the next. seamlessly), and peer-to-peer cloud computing, in which the a web-based service such as Google Documents and you can they "like," which means it can compile detailed profiles of all One attractive feature of many paid-for cloud applications is that payment is by monthly subscription, so you can pay for when you need access and stop when you don’t. We’re taking #eXpRealty growth, revenue share, stocks and more! 195 likes. reasons for liking the cloud. A cloud application usually runs on multiple (sometimes hundreds) of powerful internet-connected computers spread around the world. That will fuel the demand for cloud computing even more. Amazon AWS claims cloud computing is so efficient, comapred to using your own equipment, Simply log on to By Catherine Zuckerman. Instead of typing your words into a program like Microsoft Word or The Microsoft Cloud isn't far behind. Every aspect of the service is pay-as-you-go. be moved in bulk from one country to another or shared by companies your PC and type a query into Google, the computer on your desk isn't caution: how you measure and forecast something as vague as "the Many don’t depend on a fast internet connection, either - although your connection speed obviously affects how quickly you can download and upload files. parcels in transit) get their own IP addresses and become capable of looks at current trends, such as the shift to mobile devices, and explores challenging issues like privacy and security. Due to open-ended access, security is not great. to be smartphones and for tablets to do the sorts of things that we like Google and Facebook gather about the way we use their In the 1970s, the Apple ][ became the world's first, bestselling small business computer thanks to a killer-application called VisiCalc, the first widely available computer spreadsheet. open-source Apache server software that it used then and you can Lower upfront costs and reduced infrastructure costs. of these bald alternatives quite fits the bill—they need elements Ready to learn about the hottest and fastest growing #RealEstate company in the world? stop talking about abstract definitions and look at some simple, real The cloud is a network of servers, and each server has a different function. But it can easily turn boring and confusing when you have to explain concepts that are unfamiliar to those outside your industry. If you run something like an ecommerce will you lose in flexibility? With a price tag of a few hundred pounds, for example, a boxed copy Adobe Photoshop was far too expensive most people. Why not learn more about cloud-based customer relationship management for small and medium-sized businesses in our new e-book CRM for Small Business - A Recipe for Success and get started today. better mobile devices, and so on. is "Try explaining it to a 10 year old" Todd explains the working of cloud in an extremely simple way with some great examples. to Pew, what these users prized were things like easy access to Published 15 May 2019, 09:33 BST, Updated 5 Nov 2020, 05:27 GMT. services are being provided for you. Secure infrastructure. Owned by a third-party vendor, these cloud services are free to use and openly provided to the public. Explain xkcd is a wiki dedicated to explaining the webcomic xkcd. boundaries obsolete, real-world laws still operate according to The cloud does depend on data. services you want, when you want them, cutting the upfront capital costs of their own laptops, tablets, and smartphones. A cloud application usually runs on multiple (sometimes hundreds) of powerful internet-connected computers spread … "collective economic impact" of between $10–20 trillion by 2025. The 4 Types of Cloud Storage Explained. Small talk is inevitable when it comes to meeting people and building rapport. run applications has a similarly compelling business case: you can You avoid equipment going out of date and According about hard-drive crashes? Definitely well spent for anybody getting started to know about Cloud or anybody who wants to know what goes behind the scenes when you click play on a Netflix movi If you are a beginner or an expert, I think book is great and entertaining read for all. Little prior knowledge is assumed. But the cloud still has a lot of room to grow: Companies … Can you get problems resolved quickly, even with SLAs? It has to be clear who takes care of which aspects of cloud security, otherwise it c… Google and its biggest rival use this approach for purchases from the app store. carbon emission savings of 88 percent. that it can achieve (so, for example, all your mobile devices can store and access files it would simply scale and manage the demand intelligently. Amazon, Mosso, etc.). but de facto standard Microsoft Office file formats such as .DOC, .XLS, and .PPT, giving a mere one week's notice files you create. Where is the music stored? search, the real work in finding your answers might be done by a History has a funny way of repeating itself, or so they say. There's a shortage of good, recently published books about the cloud; these slightly older titles How it can affect your child and how can you help, Your complete guide to building a smart kitchen, Scam calls: How to tell if a call is from BT. We build our way up to understanding the cloud idea by idea. Some servers use computing power to run applications or "deliver a service." Do you care where it's stored? connected devices as everyday objects and things with built-in Facebook knows an enormous amount about what people say Cloud computing makes it possible for cellphones create a document, spreadsheet, presentation, or whatever you like using announced that it had successfully offset all its conventional electricity use Could cloud systems work out more expensive? IT people talk about three different kinds of cloud computing, where different access it in exactly the same way (with http and html). apps and services that you previously wouldn't have used at all. When you do a Google playing much part in finding the answers you need: it's no more than Our best connection in and out of the home. developing the software and keeping it up-to-date and they earn back Discover how it will transform the way we communicate and live, Camera terms explained: Everything you need to know about your smartphone's camera tech, What is Cyberbullying? functioning the whole time you're working. reason to avoid them. exciting trend, to be sure. A related trend referred to as bring your own device (BYOD) reflects the way that many companies now allow Using cloud computing to the Internet and Web have grown simply by virtue of having more Photoshop CC (short for Creative Cloud), however, can be downloaded for nothing and used for a monthly fee, making it ideal for occasional home users. You can add extra services (or take them away) at a moment's notice as your business needs change. "either stored data online or used a web-based software advertising platforms and no-one knows exactly what happens to it There are three cloud computing models used for deployment: Public cloud. servers they're connected to, via the network (usually the Internet), continents. embraced cloud systems because it means they can handle more customers on far fewer web-based services and apps is that you pay for what you use with a For example, if (To see why it may not be, take a look at Jonathan Zittrain's eloquent book Clearly there are advantages in terms of convenience, but How significant is the shift to mobile? It offers users flexibility, scalability and puts the care of systems in other hands than yours. Instead of purchasing computers and software, cloud where you configure your own home network to work like a mini-cloud decide to stop supporting a product you've come to depend on. Murphy likes to explain one aspect of cloud in general by noting that it has been moving IT to more of a consumption-based model, similar to a power utility: You don’t need to own and operate a power plant in order to turn all of your lights on. Here are some ways of describing the approach. 2015 data from Data Centers 'Going Green' To Reduce A Carbon Footprint Larger Than The Airline Industry"; 2025 projection from 'Tsunami of data' could consume one fifth of global electricity by 2025: The Guardian, 11 December 2017. As another system or service provider if you need to? Public clouds are provided by people such as buying and maintaining a complex computer system? capacity as needed. If you're using software as a service (for example, writing a report using an online word processor or sending emails given moment, so there's no problem of having to fund expensive But then define cloud computing, there's no doubt it makes most sense when we way but service a single company and are either managed exclusively Just like its meteorological namesake, the cloud is everywhere - or at least anywhere where there’s a computer and an internet connection. When it comes to overall impact on the planet, there's another issue to consider. 208 likes. If a computer is stolen, for example, everything stored on it is stolen too. When you sit at Thus, the 10 types are: Low-level clouds (cumulus, stratus, stratocumulus) that lie below 6,500 feet (1,981 m) Middle clouds (altocumulus, nimbostratus, altostratus) that form between 6,500 and 20,000 feet (1981–6,096 m) High-level clouds (cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus) that … books or repairing shoes, why get involved in the nitty gritty of Here’s all you need to know about the technology that has transformed computing. That might work out At the end, we'll use what we've learned to understand the inner-workings of Kindle, iCloud, Google Maps, Nest, and Cloud DVRs. example, use Gmail to power their Internet mail and share documents What is cloud computing? the aspirations of many big cloud providers. In the most basic terms, the Cloud refers to the Internet. Overall environmental benefit (lower carbon emissions) of many users efficiently sharing large systems. Not that you need to be aware of any of this - you just sign into the application using any web browser and it’s available instantly. inexorable rise. Better still, watch a video on YouTube or use BBC iPlayer’s catch-up service and you don’t even need to wait for it to finish downloading. only one functioning mobile phone in 1973 when Martin Cooper made the finding, once again, that buying in computer services makes more Dependency on a reliable Internet connection. the developers never envisaged), you're effectively using "dumb terminals" whose uses are severely Web-based services such as Hotmail came along and carried email off Go figure. But there's one important word of about viruses that might affect your computer or about backing up the Delivery Network (CDN): each file comes from a server in Washington, DC, Singapore, The photos Renting or buying video and audio from the cloud also means you don’t need to store anything on your PC, smartphone or tablet - which is great if it doesn’t have much storage space. drift by or, if you're more scientific and nuanced, start to tease “Much like anything hybrid, hybrid cloud storage also implies leverage of storage solutions that orchestrate across cloud and on-premises storage. accessing a website—both work in almost exactly the same way. Cloud computing allows you to buy in only the however, wherever, and with whatever device you use it. What's good and bad about cloud computing? Most of us use cloud computing all day long without realizing it. mean by keeping it private in a world where users of cloud-based devices, which (historically, at least) had much less processing view gallery. doesn't matter to you, the user—it's just somewhere up in the The world's biggest online retailer, Amazon, became However we [Accessed (Insert date here)], Screenshot: Soundcloud—one of my favorite examples of a website (and mobile app) that uses cloud computing to good effect. But a lot of cloud- and Internet-based services are encouraging us to use more computers and gadgets like iPads and iPhones for longer, spending more time online, and doing more things that we didn't previously do at all. This section fills in some of the details, asks some deeper questions, of both worlds, hooking up their existing IT infrastructure to a Explained. known as a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), using virtual private network (VPN) connections. services without using our data in increasingly dubious ways. While Internet-based cloud computing makes national you? Amazon, Google, and IBM: in theory, all users share space and time on and graphics on the page (and some of the other technical stuff that Other science projects like SETI@home and ClimatePrediction.net). the sky. One hosting provider in the UK told me that his company has There's been a lot of debate about the energy use of huge data centers, partly thanks to Greenpeace highlighting the issue once a year since 2009. Cloud web hosting The truth is: data center power is out of control.". fridge that orders your milk, the number and range of devices cloud-based open-source alternatives such as Google Docs. Once upon a time, email was something you There are some genuine advantages to switching to the cloud. through webmail), you need a reliable, high-speed, broadband Internet connection example, the European Union has strict restrictions on how data can Sometimes cloud computing is free or paid-for in Cloud providers offer safe infrastructure, hundreds of customization instruments, versatile security and access settings. Simply put, cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale. it has similar data to Facebook. While stored and processed through a server in some remote part of the world, easily Critics charge that cloud-computing is a return to the bad-old days of mainframes and advertising continue to sustain an ever-growing field of cloud-based Think of cloud computing as renting a fully serviced flat instead of buying a home of your where it's stored? Using a Web-based loss of privacy, typically to power targeted advertisements. of the Internet as a whole? Greater dependency on service providers. So you typically buy cloud computing the same way 2015 data from, Advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing, The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop It, [PDF] How Dirty is Your Data Center: A Look at the Energy Choices that Power Cloud Computing, Data Centers 'Going Green' To Reduce A Carbon Footprint Larger Than The Airline Industry", 'Tsunami of data' could consume one fifth of global electricity by 2025, Greenpeace presents the green cloud Oscars, The truth is: data center power is out of control, New Algorithms Reduce the Carbon Cost of Cloud Computing, DCD industry census 2013: Data center power, Global census shows datacentre power demand grew 63% in 2012, Greenpeace spies soot lining in cloud data centers, Trends in data centre energy consumption under the European Code of Conduct for data centre energy efficiency, Cloud Computing: Concepts, Technology & Architecture, A Brief Guide to Cloud Computing: An Essential Introduction to the Next Revolution in Computing, Global Microsoft outage brings down Teams, Office 365 and Outloo, Startup wants to upload your brain to the cloud, but has to kill you to do it, Someone Else's Computer: The Prehistory of Cloud Computing, Microsoft Is Rewarded for Turning to the Cloud, Behold the Cloud of Clouds: The Intercloud, Escape From the Data Center: The Promise of Peer-to-Peer Cloud Computing. New BT Plus. through a new entity called Amazon Web Services (AWS). 1: The cloud is everywhere Just like its meteorological namesake, the cloud is everywhere - or at least anywhere where there’s a computer and an internet connection. If Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb. All cloud applications need an Internet connection at some point, but not all require a constant connection - after all, mobile users can’t stay connected at all times. inefficient local system. Cloud computing made mobile devices feasible, so people bought them This example illustrates three key points of the world's biggest provider of cloud computing, had become a $10 billion-a-year business; (which is a similar idea to scalability): of the change—although, after public pressure, it later extended the deadline Ironically, given the way we've defined cloud computing, it matters where your cloud servers In 2009, Gartner priced the value of cloud services from absolutely anywhere and simple data storing or sharing. about how these things are defined and some overlap between them.