Thursday, 31 December 2009 14:07

Cloud computing uses the Internet to move in-house computing to massive, but scalable, third party services. While in the short run this new approach to handling data will primarily impact businesses, in the long run as consumers utilize more e-readers, smart phones, etc. their information will be gathered, stored and digested. Simply stated cloud computing employs a “cloud” of servers that store information and hold a suite of software products, including spreadsheets, word processing, and calendars. Picture massive data centers housing millions of PCs that have no keyboard or screens and are arranged in stacks and have been repurposed as servers to process searches, store information, conduct data transfers, etc.

The use for businesses is obvious. For example, a manufacturing company that uses dozens, or hundreds, of servers to crunch the numbers on a sophisticated design model allocates a huge per cent of its budget to hardware and software outlay in addition to the personnel costs to oversee the task. With cloud computing, the manufacturer can go online, choose the capacity and configuration necessary for the modeling task, and then let the cloud provider’s servers do the work, substantially reducing the cost.

Consumers who use Amazon, Gmail or similar applications are already part of cloud computing. For example, Amazon extrapolates from the browsing and purchase histories of a customer to recommend books. Smart phones collect enormous amounts of data. Mobile telephone companies gather and store digital data on calls made and received and how long each lasted. In addition, the chips in the phone’s GPS track a user’s location, the length of stay, and other mobile users she is in touch with. There is no question that technologies spur ways to improve services, and also to quietly redefine privacy. It has been said that Americans will not have their privacy taken from them, but will cede it incrementally over time. Others tout the fact that a central repository of information that you and authorized users can access from any location eliminates problems that arise from distributing multiple versions of data. It also eliminates the risk of sending files through unsecured email, copying file to portable flash drives, and storing data on laptops that can become lost or stolen. User’s appetite for efficiency versus privacy will most likely be determined in the future through regulation, and because cloud computing solutions are relatively new, unimagined issues will surface as well.

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