The Cloud

[dreamaker]

I know there are people in our group that have a better understanding of the Internet storage. OK!  Correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding that the cloud is a virtual hard drive on the world wide web. Right or wrong. I have been offered to store on the cloud, but I told them to take a hike. Now lately many devices that utilize bluetooth software to function, the device, is on the cloud and the data is also stored there, rather than download the program and storing the data on our PC. I get the feeling they are slowly pushing us to store on the cloud. Am I in the ball park or not.

[hubcapsc]

The Cloud is a buzzword for many things.

I use gmail (email in The Cloud)...

Amazon will sell you virtual computers to run your stuff on (whole computers in The Cloud)

And lots of people want to sell you disk space in The Cloud.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

-Mike

[Willow]

Basically the "Cloud" is a marketing term for remote storage and processing power.

By storing your stuff or programs elsewhere you are able to make it someone else's responsibility to be sure your data and programs continue to be available when your house burns down.  It will also be someone else's job to be sure you're on fast performance, up to date software.

There are certainly some prices you pay for moving your stuff to where someone else will be responsible for it. 

[dreamaker]

Basically the "Cloud" is a marketing term for remote storage and processing power.

By storing your stuff or programs elsewhere you are able to make it someone else's responsibility to be sure your data and programs continue to be available when your house burns down.  It will also be someone else's job to be sure you're on fast performance, up to date software.

There are certainly some prices you pay for moving your stuff to where someone else will be responsible for it. 

Would the cloud be a buzz name for a FTP site?

[Serk]

Basically the "Cloud" is a marketing term for remote storage and processing power.

By storing your stuff or programs elsewhere you are able to make it someone else's responsibility to be sure your data and programs continue to be available when your house burns down.  It will also be someone else's job to be sure you're on fast performance, up to date software.

There are certainly some prices you pay for moving your stuff to where someone else will be responsible for it. 

Would the cloud be a buzz name for a FTP site?

Fancied up and made a little more integrated into whatever it is you're using, but basically yes...

[bigguy]

There are also some advantages to the cloud. My phone, ipad, and laptop are all synced up in the cloud. If I take a picture with my phone, it's automatically available on the other devices. Same thing goes for calendar, contacts, texting, and just about anything else.
I used to keep a linux server at my house for web hosting and remote storage. I quickly realized that I could throw thousands of dollars at my home setup, and still not be up on the latest patches, apps, and security measures. It's much more efficient to let somebody who specializes in that worry about the newest patches and upgrades. I just pay a marginal, monthly fee. I do have some external drives to archive some stuff, but it's pretty nice to know that if the house catches on fire, or the Air Force accidentally drops a nuke on my town, my stuff will still be there "in the cloud."

[hubcapsc]

There are also some advantages to the cloud.

And some dis-advantages... it is hard to know who is doing what with or to your stuff...

I've never had a smart-phone/tablet/android thing before. I have a galaxy note 12.2
now, and next time I turn it on I'm going to be doing a do-over (factory reset).

At first I naively turned on "automatic updates"... security updates, right? On this thing
it apparently means "suck the app store dry any time you're in range of a wi-fi hotspot"...
And any time it is on, it is logged onto my gmail account. Bleggh. I've created a gmail account
just for it  ...

I got it for Osmand (a gps/map app) and downloaded the South Carolina Open Street Map data for it.
As soon as I figure out how to do it without giving google my visa card or link them to my bank (a
$25 google play gift card is the answer I hope) I'll get the paid version of Osmand and download
every state's data. Then I'll have off-line maps of the whole country and routing and gps and all
that stuff.

This weekend I used google maps to make a custom route, saved it to a gpx file and loaded that onto
Osmand, it worked great! I'll work on the learning curve some more and soon be able to free
up a bunch of Red Book space in the saddlebags and have gps too...

-Mike

[dreamaker]

Well I guess I was pretty much on the mark far as what the cloud is, I was really hoping I was wrong. But guys were helpful.  The thing that concerns me is, I have been noticing in some cases you don't buy the software, but you lease it buy the month. One example is, Adobe software, and Realplayer the Cloud, unless I misunderstand and can buy it out right. I  have a couple devices one is the Garmin Vivofit which is Bluetooth to download you fitness data it gets stored on the cloud, rather than my hard drive. I get the impression that it will be the standard for software. So what it boils down to is, any time we use a device it will be stored on the cloud. So if we do something stupid, like go to a party and take a shot of our belly button and someone, somehow see it on the cloud and say they are offended by it, then they use it against us. Also it is there forever, Right.  I was kind of over thinking that one.

[bigguy]

Also it is there forever, Right.  I was kind of over thinking that one.

Nope. Sounds like you're pretty well on it.

A lot of software companies are looking at software as a service. And Adobe has taken that step soundly. The last version of Creative Suite you could buy outright was CS6. All they sell now is "Creative Cloud." There are a lot of folks unhappy with that. Now would be a good time for Quark or somebody to pickup some market share. I've looked hard for alternate sources. I can find a lot of stuff I can use for personal use. (Pixelmator for PhotoShop, Scribus for InDesign, and some others) But in a commercial setting, I can't find anything solid enough to risk the business on. One of the biggest problems is Post Script. You've got to have Post Script for imaging whether to printers or PDFs. There is an open source version, (Ghost Script.) but I'm not betting my paycheck on it working with everything we have or will get.

As far as photos go, anything you've posted online anywhere is likely forever somewhere out there in cyberspace for anybody willing to hunt it down. If you want your images safe, print them and keep them in a locked file cabinet. If they've ever been anywhere other than your hard drive, (and maybe even then) then the horse is out of the barn.
I'm not saying that's OK, or that we should be OK with it. But in daily practice you should be aware that that is how it is.

[Oss]

My work computer files are backed up onto the cloud every night

I also have have five UL Listed fireproof cabinets for original documents
like WILLS and all my estate, corporate and litigation files are in those as well

Its pretty cheap insurance even if you back up onto a hard drive or flash drive you cant be
too careful when the law says you have to keep stuff for 8 yrs

Oss

[Serk]

Not that anything's uncrackable, but if you're concerned about such things, you could always encrypt your data before storing it in a cloud container...

[dreamaker]

I guess way in the back of my head I knew this was coming.  About 15yrs ago a couple people I worked with told me about the water dept. pulled in their city.  Apparently what happened is the residents got efficient with their water usage, like upgrading their toilets, fixtures and so  on. Well they were using half as much of the water, OK. The city was losing money so they doubled the price of water because they said they were losing profit. What is my point you wonder??  The point is now and more in the near future we will be paying the same price or even double for half the products. So if you are at the mercy of the cloud for software usage, these companies are save a ton of money because the don't have to give you anything physical.  Like dics, books, shipping and so on.

[BF]

No one understands the cloud!	powered by Aeva

[dreamaker]

Good One!!

[saddlesore]

I just synced my tablet and that also opened up a door for cloud.  It filled immediately.  Now they want me to buy more storage.  I never knowingly put anything into cloud.  Now I don't know if I delete the cloud storage will I delete all files that are on my tablet too ?

[Valkorado]

There are also some advantages to the cloud.

And some dis-advantages... it is hard to know who is doing what with or to your stuff...

Both my phone and tablet have forced the cloud upon me, but I am using it for the space hogging stuff that I wouldn't lose sleep over someone seeing -- music (over 10 gigs on Drive) mostly.  I've even passed on read only secure links to friends.  What's cool is with apps like Beat music player I can stream my stash from anywhere.   

[Robert]

Points pretty much been made but why would companies switch to cloud or PUSH you to switch? Because they can charge monthly instead of one time, you own nothing even your personal files, stop paying and see what happens. Big companies are hacked regardless of what they say. Sony for example, so I will as much as I can stay with the current model of buying and owning. Encrypting with the nsa is not what it used to be since there has been talk of back doors built into most encryption. For some its mandatory that they have backup of important files this is a bit different than subscription software or just plain backing up a phone. Yes there are certain conveniences but I like my information kept to myself as much as possible and the there are plenty of ways to backup to hard drives usb drives cd or to keep it personal. If they can get into Sony, Apple, NY Times, Target, Home Depot just to name a few what makes you think that if its important to they they cannot get into your stuff? Companies make money selling advertising what makes you think that if your information can provide a revenue stream for them that it will be safe? Might as well let the people down the block take care or your children if you think that. We are getting to the point where we own nothing and at the flick of a switch you could be denied your information, bank account, or anything else you have with electronics its easy. So before you go surrendering to corp America think where this is all leading.

[dreamaker]

Hypothetically speaking, based on the information that everyone has shared on the thread,  The logic would be, like we are making our DNA available to the public. Just as serious, makes about the same sense, Right!!

[hubcapsc]

Encrypting with the nsa is not what it used to be since there has been talk of back doors built into most encryption.

Very good (the best?) encryption software is open source (another important buzzword).
Given that bugs, like the one that lead to Heartbleed, are present in all software, there's no
guarantees that anything is flawless. But there's no hidden conspiracies in the code or
math that makes up current open source encryption software...

-Mike

[Robert]

Now, a Reuters exclusive report is showing the other side of the story. The report details a secret deal between the NSA and respected encryption company RSA, in which the agency paid $10 million for RSA to incorporate the weaker algorithm into an encryption product called BSafe. Because of the earlier work, the algorithm had been approved by NIST, so RSA could claim their encryption used only nationally certified protocols. At the same time, BSafe's encryption was defaulting to a fundamentally flawed encryption algorithm, which the NSA could subvert whenever they needed to.

NSA encryption backdoor proof of concept published
http://www.zdnet.com/article/nsa-encryption-backdoor-proof-of-concept-published/

OF course the denial that this happened but who do you want to believe?

Why did the NSA break or try to break TOR? Why did did True Crypt all of a sudden say that their software was no good?

YUP nothing to see here move along, by the way if you read the fine print on the agreement you sign going in it tells you that the company owns your information on most clouds.

Going a bit further in why is it so important to have a high speed internet across the US since most institutions that depend on it already have high speed internet? Could it be the model for software is not going to work if the internet is slow? There are so many implications most harmless but with the harmless also go the bad.

I mind the pushing of even companies like Apple to set up a cloud account. Its almost been mandatory to use their phone. Now I am kind of curious how come all companies all of a sudden want the move to the cloud. Not necessarily conspiracy reasons could be profits but it is pretty consistent across the computing field. We could easily be reduced to a digital signature with all the information tied to one database. National ID, is pretty close. Why did we need to build a facility that uses 40 million dollars a year in energy for keeping the US safe, of course that's what its for.

[hubcapsc]

The NSA could be doing anything to closed source software from some company (for
example, RSA (the company) which is owned now by EMC... ABCDEFG  ) that
nobody can look at. And a lot of that kind of stuff is in use. But it's not possible to put
unknowable secrets in open source software (or math). Reasons for using closed source
encryption probably have more to do with lawyers and red tape and less to do with
wanting the best encryption.

The encryption technology known as RSA (not the company known as RSA) is old
and its details are well known...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_(cryptosystem)


-Mike

[dreamaker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07J5ISdtyxo