Computing in the cloud - what do you think?

[Tommo]

Is computing in the cloud something you or your business would look into?

Let me just explain briefly,

Placing your computing in the cloud is essentially, hosting your computer/s on a pool of servers. To be fair the benefits are huge, take the basics for instance, internet speed, tests have been up to 37 times quicker than DSL and cable.
Say your local internet disconnects, your computer in the cloud is still up and running and downloading that important file.

You don't need to buy new hardware, you can access your top spec cloud machine from an cheap net book or old pc.

Think of data protection/backup , IT administration and so on, all of that becomes so much easier.

And possibly, best of all, you can access your computer anywhere in the world at any time on any machine.


This is something I've been looking at for a while and I was wondering what you guys thought.


Cheers
Tom

[Subbynet]

Back in about 1998, I use to have Shell accounts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_account). Pretty much the same as what you're own about - my own little computer in the sky.

The issue was none of the other things came true - computers just increased so much faster than my ISP for the Shell account... It got to the point where I had more bandwidth than was allocated, and more Hard Drive space, because hard drives had doubled nearly year on year.

Sure, the bandwidth at first was good (for hosting), but I (ME) could only connect to the shell at MY speed, which was slower at first (56kbps back then!), so no real net benefit for myself.

Data Protection and Backup doesn't get easier, it just becomes more of a headache, another step in the chain, unless you rely on your ISP to do it, and I wouldn't.

There are benefits to using clouds, but trying to use one as your personal PC in the sky probably isn't it.

[Robski]

cloud computing... yes.. it's here, but it's still coming of age. The concept is great and I can't wait for it to become totally viable in the broader market. There are lots of benefits / future benefits. One big drawback is that YOU need to have constant and fast access to the internet. as we know, this isn't the case for everyone and everywhere. Mobile working is certainly big already and will become even more important.

would I be looking at it now. No, not yet. I'm involved (work wise that is before any comments :) with quite a few tier 1 and 2 IT companies and they are not there yet. SaaS, which is related to cloud computing is much more developed though.

...but, watch this cloud. it's growing :)

[Jay-UK]

Good in that the cost savings can be immense

Key Challenges

- Internet Connection is required all the time [although some apps are now out there which utilise store-and-forward- technology but there useless for high end transactional processing apps]

- Security - data is pretty much off site and so its not suited for all and sundry

With the cost of technology decreasing - it really is a tradeoff between skills, costs, security and ownership.

[JoyDivision]

Its nothing new but bandwidth is becoming cheap enough for this to take off in the home. IT will be big but at the same time its a load of old hype. Over the next ten years there will be a gradual shift towards online storage and applications.

[othellotech]

Say your local internet disconnects, your computer in the cloud is still up and running and downloading that important file.

And then inmost instances you've got to d/load it again, to get it to your local machine ...


your top spec cloud machine

Most cloud-servers are anything but "top-spec", as they're invariably oversold Virtual Private Servers (VPS) - just a "slice" of a machine


Think of data protection/backup , IT administration and so on, all of that becomes so much easier.

Why would administration be any easier - you now have two devices to manage not one
Backup ? You still need to take backups, only now the data isn't "local" to you - how is that easier ?
Data protection - when you're data is "in the cloud" do you know where it is ? do you knwo who can acess it ? is it even *legal* for your business to store the data in that location ?

"Cloud" is nothing new - your website is "in the cloud" - its just the new marketing term for ASP which was the new marketing term for Client-Server which was the new marketing term for ...

[KM-Tiger]

"Cloud" is nothing new - your website is "in the cloud" - its just the new marketing term for ASP which was the new marketing term for Client-Server which was the new marketing term for ...

... when we used to use mainframes and terminals. I think it was called computing.

[Syrupy]

And then inmost instances you've got to d/load it again, to get it to your local machine ...


Most cloud-servers are anything but "top-spec", as they're invariably oversold Virtual Private Servers (VPS) - just a "slice" of a machine


Why would administration be any easier - you now have two devices to manage not one
Backup ? You still need to take backups, only now the data isn't "local" to you - how is that easier ?
Data protection - when you're data is "in the cloud" do you know where it is ? do you knwo who can acess it ? is it even *legal* for your business to store the data in that location ?

"Cloud" is nothing new - your website is "in the cloud" - its just the new marketing term for ASP which was the new marketing term for Client-Server which was the new marketing term for ...

This man speaks truth.

I think of cloud computing as services like Amazon EC2, intended for performing intensive computing.

As 'cloud computing' became the new 'AJAX' amongst middle management, a lot of hosting providers have started offering thin client offerings under the name.

I think we'll see a move towards thin clients in the future though, but internet connections need to progress a lot first.

[JoyDivision]

And that is the problem I doubt we will get reliable internet access cheap enough for it to work that well.

[c3p0]

the concept of the cloud is a brilliant one ... downside is you are losing any control you may have had on your own .. now you have to log calls, hang on to some irritating voice system, send endless emails, demand ISP's met their sla's , fight fight fight .. not like the old days .. go downstairs, kick open the server room door .. reboot the server .. problem solved ... 5 min tops

[agriya]

Cloud computing for content delivery is awesome, trusting your business to the cloud...I'm not so sure. Our company uses Google Docs to share spreadsheets and documents but the browser interface still makes it not as quick and useful as knocking something up in Word or Excel.

Now using Word or Excel on your desktop and the file being saved to the cloud automatically and being able to see in real time any updates from within Office...that would probably persuade a lot of people to switch over.

[Jay-UK]

Cloud computing for content delivery is awesome, trusting your business to the cloud...I'm not so sure. Our company uses Google Docs to share spreadsheets and documents but the browser interface still makes it not as quick and useful as knocking something up in Word or Excel.

Now using Word or Excel on your desktop and the file being saved to the cloud automatically and being able to see in real time any updates from within Office...that would probably persuade a lot of people to switch over.

Agree - currently involved in a large scale enterprise bid for G-Apps and to be honest Microsoft's BPOS is a far better offering. The issue with Google Apps is that it isn't yet at a stage where enterprises can take it up as its collab features are limited.

[garyk]

ahhh it takes me back 1978, a usr teletype teleprinter where you took the phone of the hook, stuffed into the modem, dialled up, submitted a job and got your 'time-slice' of computing from a nearby mainframe and the results back. Who said cloud computing was new and innovative eh? ;)

[wedesignyourweb]

Ive got a mac and I really recommend it!