The cloud
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How do you mean? I have quite a bit of stuff on the cloud, mostly business stuff as I work between 5 or so PC's but the bulk of my data is on my home server. Such as ripped music, and dvds. I have a couple of Tb of stuff that ywould not even be feasible to store on the cloud.
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I'm using it as a back up resource for my server instead of having loads of back up HDD's. Although ... I must admit I have retained the hard copies for now until I see how this cloud thingy develops and I get this old head around exactly how it all works and what I can do with it.
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It's just a stupid 'cool' buzz word everyone uses now for something that's been around for years in one way or another, many companies have offered similar services in the past without all this cloud nonsense
I guess it's an evolution of hosting really where in the past you'd rent an actual server.
Just think of it as instead of paying for a server, a disk, the OS, all the nuts and bolts of where you want to host your data/application, you just pay someone for the service to do so and they worry about all that stuff.
As with everything there's pros and cons to doing it.
Take that Megaupload site, effectively a cloud storage service, lots and lots of people now don't have access to 'their' data and depending on what happens they may never get it back.
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Yup... am just starting to see where you are coming from with storing your 2TB of data on the "cloud". It would take a VERY LONG TIME to get it all uploaded
My own data pool is very modest to yours..... say 35% ish and on a "typical home connection" (Virgin 50MB fibre/cable package) it's taking eons to get the stuff uploaded. Again being a novice in this area it may be just the software/hardware I'm using and not having the optimal settings etc... but God .... it's slow. Plus side is that on "buckets" or folders that I've completed the schedulded backups and uploading of new or modified files and folders is very very quick and slick in comparison. I suspect that enterprise setups have way faster upload connections?It's just a stupid 'cool' buzz word everyone uses now for something that's been around for years in one way or another, many companies have offered similar services in the past without all this cloud nonsense
I guess it's an evolution of hosting really where in the past you'd rent an actual server.
Just think of it as instead of paying for a server, a disk, the OS, all the nuts and bolts of where you want to host your data/application, you just pay someone for the service to do so and they worry about all that stuff.
As with everything there's pros and cons to doing it.
Take that Megaupload site, effectively a cloud storage service, lots and lots of people now don't have access to 'their' data and depending on what happens they may never get it back.
Read your post with interest and some points are now a little clearer
The Megaupload point is very good and one for everyone to bare in mind IMO. It worried me for a while, but unless Amazon go completely bonkers and bite the dust in a sudden suicide dive I should get fair warning. Yup I'm using AWS (Amazon web Services) S3 at the moment. I must also admit that many of the services that I now have available through them quite frankly a) I have not got the foggiest idea what they do
b) probably will not use - even though you get a hefty ( well it appears quite large to me but more than likely is a tiny scratch in real terms ) free usage allowance
as above, "the cloud" is 100% marketing. its basically off site hosting/management with a stupid word. "someone elses problem"
in the end, its just someone elses data center that you are storing stuff in rather than yours, hopefully they have better DR plans..
in the end, its just someone elses data center that you are storing stuff in rather than yours, hopefully they have better DR plans..
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It's just a stupid 'cool' buzz word everyone uses now for something that's been around for years in one way or another, many companies have offered similar services in the past without all this cloud nonsense
Exactly.
Having now had Cloud in a few job titles now, I think the answer here is that it depends what you mean by Cloud. Storage as a Service is great for backup but is still a long way from being fast enough for primary storage.
Where Cloud probably has more chance of success for home users is Software as a Service with services like GoogleApps and Office365.
Where Cloud probably has more chance of success for home users is Software as a Service with services like GoogleApps and Office365.
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You obviously have never looked into or used this service.... if you had you would understand all about data encryption (either from the upload side or server side)... therefore you would have resisted the urge to throw in the red herring about some data security issue that does not exist ... unless your stupid enough not to use it for personal or industrial/commerce sensitive materials
You obviously have never looked into or used this service.... if you had you would understand all about data encryption (either from the upload side or server side)... therefore you would have resisted the urge to throw in the red herring about some data security issue that does not exist ... unless your stupid enough not to use it for personal or industrial/commerce sensitive materials
Personally feel it's not a red herring, 'encryption' is not a silver bullet especially when not implemented properly/suitably.
There have been well publicised issues with Dropbox for instance, so much so that they had to change their security terms of service to cover their bum as it turns out they can decrypt your data.
http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2011/Apr-19.html
If someone else holds the encryption keys to your data then that's another risk to take into account.
I don't know what Amazon's key management policies are though so couldn't comment on that particular service.
*edit* ok so I looked it up
http://aws.amazon.com/s3/faqs/#What_options_do_I_have_for_encrypting_data_stored_on_Amazon_S3
So do you let AWS manage your keys or do you do it yourself?
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I use dropbox myself, and although there are quite few files on there its mostly drawings and designs with a lot of proprietary formats that can only be read with the program + security dongle (which are still, as yet, totally secure and uncracked)
It's all about risk really, in reality is the fact that somehow either a Dropbox member of staff or someone who has access to the right things there could grab your keys a big enough risk for you to worry about it?
Answer will be different for different people
I used the dropbox thing just to highlight that just because someone uses the word encryption doesn't necessarily mean what you think it might.
In reality as has been said, for personal data I doubt majority of people are bothered.
Answer will be different for different people
I used the dropbox thing just to highlight that just because someone uses the word encryption doesn't necessarily mean what you think it might.
In reality as has been said, for personal data I doubt majority of people are bothered.
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Cloud is failover clustering?!?!
If anyone is unsure of what cloud is, Amazon AWS are pretty much defining it
AWS might be defining Infrastructure as a Service but that's not the only kind of cloud. Amazon S3, Dropbox and LiveDrive are all examples of Storage as a Service - as is iCloud really.
MS Azure is Platform as a Service and GoogleAps, Office365 and Salesforce.com are all examples of Software as a Service. Microsoft would love everyone to move to a SaaS model as they would then get monthly rental rather than one off purchases so they keep getting revenue even if you don't upgrade.
From a technology standpoint, IaaS is just virtualisation with a self-service front end.
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Same, but it isn't going anywhere - you know you're in trouble when your Mum is using the word.
It boils down to a load of virtualised systems on the Internet with a user friendly interface - or as I like to call them, 'Servers'.
Back to the original question:
I don't think the cloud will be the death of home servers - the way people get and consume media will.
I have had a habit of hoarding tv programmes - only to watch them once or twice and leave them to bit-rot. Replacing my NAS has brought home the extent of this to me.
With services like spotify, iPlayer, 4oD, netflix, etc, you can watch/listen to pretty much anything you want when you want it either for free or pretty cheaply.
The one thing that holds this back is not internet speeds (well, maybe for HD content), but bandwidth caps.
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