Reading 07: Cloud Computing

From the readings and in your experience, what exactly is Cloud Computing and what are some ethical issues or concerns regarding it? Considering the Internet meme that “There is no cloud. It’s just someone else’s computer”:

• As developer, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the Cloud? Describe any experiences you’ve had in using the Cloud as a development platform, what led you to use it, and if you plan on using it in the future.
• As a consumer, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the Cloud? Describe what sort of Cloud services you use on a regular basis.
• Discuss the trade-offs are you making in utilizing these platforms as both a developer and a consumer. At the end of the day, do you trust the Cloud?

Cloud computing has become more and more relevant over the past few years. The joke that the cloud is merely “just someone else’s computer” is not that far off, as cloud computing involves utilizing a third party’s computing resources to store your own data or run your own processes. Cloud computing offers many benefits to consumers. Cloud providers typically offer users some type of subscription plan to have access to their tremendous amount of hardware, so users save a lot of money by only paying for the servers and not having to buy all of the hardware themselves. Along with saving money by not having to buy hardware, cloud services users have access to top notch hardware that allow them to run their jobs faster and store a large amount of data. They can access these servers instantly and at any time. Perhaps the biggest positive that comes with cloud computing is the scale it offers. Users and companies that utilize cloud services can use as much or as little of it as they require, so it is very easy to scale up usage if that is needed. This is extremely helpful to businesses/companies that are growing and need more space to store data. All in all, cloud computing lowers operating costs, runs efficiently, and is large in scale. 

This semester, I am in a Cloud Computing course where we are learning about and utilizing various distributed computing strategies. Along with this experience of using the cloud as a development platform, I also have used cloud services personally. Like most people, I use Google Drive and the Apple iCloud for personal storage. These services are great because of the convenience they offer, but they obviously have tremendous risks. According to this week’s articles, the recent iCloud hacker took a very direct approach with his attack. The article discussed how not even Apple’s two factor authentication and other security measures could have prevented this type of attack. This hack just goes to show how intrinsically risky cloud services are. This is particularly frightening because people store most (if not all) of there information / data in the cloud, so everyone is putting themselves at great personal risk. I was really struck by the fact that the Equifax hack effected about 44% of the entire US population, as this really emphasized the scope of the problem. Even though this personal data can be stolen, cloud service providers are pretty much covered from any blame by terms of service agreements that people make when they first start using the service.

When looking at the issue in it’s entirety, I think the benefits of the cloud outweigh the negatives. I definitely don’t trust the cloud to protect my information, but it is so ingrained in our lives now that it would be hard to get rid of. I think people just need to be more aware of these potential risks, and maybe be more selective about the information they share / store on cloud platforms.