Thing 45: Cloud Computing

I was listening to Ken Auletta, author of Googled: The End Of The World As We Know It on NPR a couple weeks ago and he provided an extremely succinct definition of cloud computing. Any time I'm accessing the processing power of other people's servers, that's cloud computing. So whether I'm blogging, using email (cause all the action's taking place on somebody else's servers, even if I'm paying my own ISP instead of using Yahoo or Google), storing photos on Flickr or SmugMug, taking part in any internet-based game or using any software not stored on my CPU, that's cloud computing.

[As an aside, I was really intrigued to learn how Google ranks their hits.]

I had to laugh at the idea that cloud computing improves my productivity. Um, no, but it certainly is a fabulous social enhancement/time sink.

Also, calling it "cloud computing" obscures how basic the idea is. It's like renting space/production facilities in somebody else's warehouse. The Tame The Web blogger points out questions like, "How do you trust Google to keep your information secure?" or "What if you can’t get on the Web?" Those answers, I suspect, are much the same as when you're renting somebody else's warehouse. 1. Take away the keys, i.e. encrypt it 2. Tough bananas. If you can't get on the Web, you're probably not in a situation where you can access your own computer, either. If you can access your own computer, why isn't the stuff ON it? Don't you believe in backup?

My question is, what about when the warehouse burns down? The info isn't in a cloud, it's on somebody's machine. I guess that like the answer to 2, you can't do cloud computing without backing up -- put your materials in several places.