The online journalism revolution is giving us everything in one place. Different news websites are accessible at the same time. We can have our email and updates appear together on aggregators. Online articles link to blogs and videos and pictures to help tell more of a story. But what happens when everything, actually everything, is in one place? Welcome to Cloud Computing as explained to us by Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC technology correspondant, in our online lecture this week.
Courtesy of Kevin Dooley
A company (Microsoft, Amazon and Google have all jumped on the bandwagon) have a very futuristic-looking centre with an Internet system everything is stored on and run through, from software applications to your personal photos. This means you can access things that would normally be stuck on your home computer from anywhere because it is all kept in the big Internet “cloud” in the sky.
In theory it’s convenient: tasks that once had to be done from a certain computer can be done on the other side of the world. It’s cheaper because the number of servers in use can be reduced if data is stored in one place, and software installation costs for individual computers are cut down. And it’s efficient: companies can leave maintenance and sorting any kinks in their system up to their cloud hosts and get on with running their business for their customers. As Jonathan Weber of NewWest.Net recently wrote on Times Online in a very balanced and interesting Cloud Computing piece: “If we can let someone else worry about the basic technology, we can focus on the publishing. Any business person can see the logic of that.”
But Cloud Computing is not without its critics. Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, recently came out saying cloud computing was going to cost more and more over time, that it was a complete hype, and that users should keep their information in their own hands.
And he is not alone in his pessimism. Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, said in the same article: “The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we’ve redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do. The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s fashion.” Is the whole thing just a marketing hype of fashionable buzzwords? After all, Dell even recently tried to copyright the term ‘Cloud Computing’…(they were refused).
This year has seen information leaks about political parties, military details, and child benefit data. Data sticks have been left in bars, discs have been lost in the post. Even the biggest corporations, incidentally the only ones who can afford the highly expensive data centres needed for cloud computing, can make mistakes. So what happens when they become responsible for all our information? Is privacy at stake in a monopoly by two or three big businesses? What if there’s a leak or the system collapses?
Fortunately, security being the biggest fear has made it seemingly the biggest priority. Security companies are taking up residence in the cloud and spending on systems for anti-spam software and protection is expected to treble by 2013. Google has also set up a security system inspired by the successful Postini technology it acquired last year.
Journalists would be less tied to their desks if they could access systems or documents on-location more easily. Different software for production and photography could be run from your child’s PC instead of your high-tech computer in the office. But is this controversial Cloud Computing freeing everything up or allowing a data dictatorship? Or is it just a computer fad? Time will tell, but the fact that companies are investing to allay our fears with security measures is reassuring. To coin a rather well-known cliché, every cloud has a silver lining…hopefully.
