Cloud Computing: How We Got Here and Where We’re At

What is Cloud Computing?

One way to talk about cloud computing is by explaining what it is not. It is NOT local storage using a hard drive and you are not using programs downloaded on your PC. Instead, you store and access data and programs over the internet. Remote servers are used to save your work in the “cloud” and you are using web applications developed by the cloud computing service provider rather than programs that have been installed on your computer. Sometimes these web applications look like programs, for example, Google Drive has a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation application. You might already be using this technology without knowing it: your Email, Facebook and Twitter accounts store your data in the cloud.

Here are some of the benefits of cloud computing:

Synchronization: This means that regardless of where you work, the file you are working on is always up to date. For example, when you start a document at school and want to complete your work at the library you can do so because you’re not limited by what programs can be accessed across two locations. All you need is an Internet connection.
Community of people with separate devices. This service allows you to access the same file with different devices. You can download an app on your tablet or work on a desktop PC, it’s up to you. Also, if you have a project that requires a collaborative effort, cloud computing services allow you to work simultaneously on one document while tracking who has done what modifications.
Accessible and ease of use. Services like Drop Box and Google Drive are as easy as dropping files onto a desktop folder.
People working in the library may not want to spend money on a USB drive, so this service may be right for them.

For a comparison of free cloud computing services see Mika Turim-Nygren's article from Digital Trends about the top 7 cloud storage services.

How Have these Advances Been Made Possible?

Cloud computing has been made possible by and large by our ability to store large quantities of data at an effective cost. Professor Stuart Parkin recently received the 2014 Millenium Technology Prize and joined an elite cast that includes Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web. Building on the work of Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg’s application of giant magnetoresistance or GMR, Parkin was able to “create extremely sensitive devices that can detect tiny magnetic fields. This is of great importance in magnetic disk drives where information is stored as “bits” –zeroes or ones- represented by regions of the disk magnetised differently. The more sensitive the detector is, the smaller the magnetic regions, and fields, need to be for the information to be stored and read.” Professor Mark Miodownik engineer and marterials scientist at University College London argues that this sensing device has enabled a 1,000 fold improvement in the storage capacity of magnetic disk drives.

Things to consider

There are criticisms, however, one of them being over intellectual property rights. Eric Griffith of PC Magazine, asks who owns your work when it sits on a remote server? Is it your work or the cloud computing services’? For example, many of us have heard that Facebook and other social media sites own our content online, and this is partly true. Oliver Smith from the Telegraph points out that many of these such sites can change content, distribute or license it out to other parties.

Jonathan Strickland points out how complicated the issue of ownership can get when he asks if it is possible for a cloud computing company to deny a client to access their own data. Moreover, we have to consider the issue of privacy and security. Privacy can be compromised because users log in from various locations. Security involves preventing your data from being distributed to a third party without your permission and being able to trust that it’s for your own eyes only. In the Facebook example above, you give up your rights to your content by agreeing to its contract terms.

Michael Geist recently contributed to this discussion when he wrote that in 2011, the Federal Government considered how to proceed with providing one single email service to its 300,000 employees, one of its requirements was that the system be hosted in Canada on a secure server due to its privacy concerns over the USA Patriot Act. Geist asks “if U.S. cloud services are not good enough for the Canadian government, why should they be good enough for Canadian citizens?” As more data travels across the US, either through website hosting or Internet Service Providers exchanging Internet traffic with the US, Geist argues that maybe it’s time to demand that domestic data stay in the country. Perhaps, it’s also time to demand that the big players like Google, Facebook and Twitter play by fairer privacy rules.

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