What the heck is "the cloud"?

dgg wrote:

Umm... what? How is it super expensive?

A lot of people use it already for most things. People put their pictures on Picasa or Facebook, their videos on youtube, use google docs, google calender, and gmail for their office productivity. They also turn to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu for content, rather than buying and storing them locally. With the exception of the last two (Netflix and Hulu), they are all free, and those two are <$10 a month.... So why only high end institutions and the ultra-rich?

^this is the correct answer. within the decade, a third of the nation will have access to 100 mb/s worth of bandwidth. Transferring data from the internet to your computer will be faster than transferring it from a UBS 2.0 drive. so it will be much more practical to stream HD movies off the internet than it will be to go to a store an buy it on blu-ray. it is also much more convenient to be able to access your files from any computer anywhere.

it's something I leave behind as I am walking.

wqdfAscefcs wrote:

What is this mysterious new internet phenomenon google claims to be ushering in? It sounds mysterious as hell ATM and whatever it is I think it'll flop because of the hype surrounding it. What is "the cloud" and is there any merit to saying it will transform the way we use internet?

What I'm very intrigued to see is what this does to DRM. Will my files be accessible for me on any computer I own? Will I no longer have an issue of losing content that I bought when trying to transfer it over to a new computer? Or, more likely, will all content distribution models follow the Netflix streaming model? Will I not "own" any content in 5-10 years?

If the price is right then I'd try it out. Like if the cloud computers are $50 and the service is $5/month. My cash paying gig is Unix server based anyways. I.E. I have to login over the internet and run X-windows.

My real concern comes when they say your data is no longer your data. It will become some weird waters, legally speaking, once people start realizing they forfeited ownership to their intellectual properties. I can't tell you how many clever IT guys use their blogs to steal people's ideas since technically all posts are, if clearly stated, under their authority. Those pictures you post (or transmit via Blackberry)...not yours either.

I think everyone is going to be fighting to do for movies, tv, videogames and music what facebook did for pictures. Apple, Google, Amazon, and maybe Microsoft and I guess Verizon too are going to (and have already started) merge everything into a single subscription based site where you pay like $50 a month or something and have access to every movie released on DVD, every song ever recorded, every tv show ever broadcast an hour after its airing, etc. This is the best way to reign in piracy, too.

Dummy detector wrote:

2009 called. It wants its question back.

Nerd alert!

Computer companies are trying to return usage of software/hardware to machines controlled by the computer companies,

Except that there are so many hardware manufacturers, that they will sell you cloud hardware so that you can start your own cloud service. I.E. become a service provider like Verizon, AT&T, etc. Or you can buy the cloud hardware and provide service only to workers within your company. Open source has made applications free.

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the telecomm companies switched from 5ESS switches 5 to UNIX based ATM networks decades ago. basically entire factory floor of 5ESS switch equipment was replaced by a 19 inch rack wide ATM switch.

virtually every voice call, data call, text, cell call, internet connection, etc. use ATM now. we are talking via an ATM network within the telecomm infrastructure now. when you make a local phone call or phone call to the moon, it switches through an ATM fabric.

ATM using UNIX (and UNIX derivations), Java 2 Enterprise Edition, SONET, twisted pair and fiber optic cables.

in industrial areas of towns, the green utility box on street corners will have an ATM switch in it. every cell phone tower has ATM switches.