The Cloud

Published October 2, 2011 |

I have been looking for a decent presentation of the Cloud computing for some time, and have found an interesting one through TechSoup Canada.

Before you take a walk in the Cloud with Tierney from TechSoup Canada, I just want to tell you that it won`t be your first time. It is another word for the Internet and computer networks.

Since you had your first free email account (Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail), you began storing your information on the Internet. You didn`t need to install the email program on your computer as you did with Outlook, Opera or Thunderbird. You didn`t need to worry about the space on your disk to store years of messages and attachments.

Since you started uploading your photos to Flickr or Picasa, you could reach them and show them to anybody, from any computer and not worry that a hard drive crash would burn all your precious memories to bytes and pieces.

Since you used Dropbox or Google Docs, you avoided emailing yourself documents from home to work and back. Did you collaborate with people from different places who only needed Internet access to work on the one and same project and do not loose track of the latest versions?

Since you surfed YouTube or Vimeo when there was nothing good on TV. Did you upload your own creations for others to watch? You decide if your creations are public or private and you do not worry if other people will break into your treasure chest because those services are generally safe.

Since free Facebook accounts, Google Apps,Twitter, StumbleUpon, SlideShare, and many more of those useful tools we take for granted.

Since your first blog, or CMS-based web site that you comfortably log into, update on the remote server and publish with a click.

Working in the Cloud is comfortable

You can access your data from anywhere and from any device with a web browser

You do not need to buy software licenses for every computer and updates to new versions

You are better protected from viruses and spyware; you just take care of your browser protection

Your data is safely stored on multiple remote servers so you do not ever notice if some crash in one part of the world

Working in the Cloud is not completely free

You still pay for your Internet access or hosting fees

You have to maintain your computer or mobile device

If you run a company or a business, you will need top security and performance and you will pay fees to a specialized cloud service provider

Set up, application migration and use of some applications will require external support or consulting

Working in the Cloud requires caution

There is always a question of who has control over data stored on remote servers

Security is better than in traditional hard drive protection but not unbreakable

Be sure to create different passwords for different applications and take privacy seriously

Users having less and less expertise in and thus control over technology that they use

The future of public computing and universal access to technology could be in the Cloud, would you agree?

Tierney will be hosting a free webinar about the Cloud on October 27th. Register and you will find out more about cloud computing tools in action, such as Google Docs, Prezi, Smartsheets, Dropbox, Diigo and Netvibes.