CLOUD COMPUTING
What is cloud computing and where did it begin?
Cloud computing has recently became a very popular word for the home consumer. Suddenly, all of your photos, music, videos, documents, and applications are in the cloud. Your phone backups, voice recognition software, and emails are in the cloud. People talk about these things all the time but it is a rarity that you get an answer to a very simple question. What is the cloud?
The cloud is basically another word for the internet. It is a giant series of servers that houses and processes information and sends it back to you when your computer needs to retrieve it. On a very basic scale, it could be as simple as the infographic shown underneath, which depicts users using email, dropbox, or google drive to store and retrieve documents from any device at any time. On a much larger level, it can be seen in companies such as Ouya which is a gaming console with limited hardware but plays gorgeous games processed on Ouya's servers and then streamed to your home tv. To put it into perspective, in the future you will most likely own a piece of hardware that is extremely limited on paper, yet can do amazing things in the cloud. Since there are servers and supercomputers running behind the scenes and streaming the information back to you, the only limitation would be how fast that data can get back to you.
The history of cloud computing can technically be traced back to the beginning of the internet, with data being streamed across the world, but cloud computing has really taken off in the past decade. Mainly used for businesses, companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple have used cloud computing in the early 2000’s to help start up businesses with their bottom line. It most recently began affecting the general consumers in the last couple of years with the advent of google drive, apple’s cloud backup service, and other off site computing services such as “siri” on iOs.
The cloud is basically another word for the internet. It is a giant series of servers that houses and processes information and sends it back to you when your computer needs to retrieve it. On a very basic scale, it could be as simple as the infographic shown underneath, which depicts users using email, dropbox, or google drive to store and retrieve documents from any device at any time. On a much larger level, it can be seen in companies such as Ouya which is a gaming console with limited hardware but plays gorgeous games processed on Ouya's servers and then streamed to your home tv. To put it into perspective, in the future you will most likely own a piece of hardware that is extremely limited on paper, yet can do amazing things in the cloud. Since there are servers and supercomputers running behind the scenes and streaming the information back to you, the only limitation would be how fast that data can get back to you.
The history of cloud computing can technically be traced back to the beginning of the internet, with data being streamed across the world, but cloud computing has really taken off in the past decade. Mainly used for businesses, companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple have used cloud computing in the early 2000’s to help start up businesses with their bottom line. It most recently began affecting the general consumers in the last couple of years with the advent of google drive, apple’s cloud backup service, and other off site computing services such as “siri” on iOs.
