EOTO: Cloud Computing

Cloud computing, according to Wikipedia is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. In simpler terms it means to handle computing over the internet rather than via your computer’s hard drive which would be considered local computing. For it to be considered cloud computing, you need to access your data or your programs over the internet, or at the very least, have that data synced with other information over the internet. The creation and introduction of cloud computing to the world revolutionized the way people could communicate and share information.  

“The Cloud” can have different meanings for regular consumers and businesses, for consumers, regular people like me and you, we have services like Google Drive and iCloud. These are services that allow the user to store and access data on an online server and that information is there and can be accessed anytime, anyplace. 

Cloud systems for businesses work a little differently. There is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) where businesses subscribe to an application that is uses over the Internet. There is Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) where businesses can create their own application to use over the Internet. Then there is Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) where businesses like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google provide a service that can be “rented out” to other companies. Like Netflix for example, is able to provide a service to its customers because it rents cloud services from Amazon. 
With everything going digital these days allows for information to be more accessible, but it also comes the issue of cybersecurity. Back in the day when everything was stored physically on hard drives and mainframes it was easier to protect the information with a security guard or an alarm/security system on the building. It’s a lot harder to protect cyberspace because it is something that can be attacked from anywhere in the world. Someone in another continent could hack into a cloud system that is based in America and because of that cloud systems are inherently harder to keep secure. 

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