After all this talk about the clouds, I decided to go a little deeper into this new buzzword. So what is a cloud? I sat on my laptop and went straight to the source … Google. I typed “Google Cloud” and clicked the search button on Google. I found a lot of results, 85,900,000, to be exact. Many of the effects on the first page were for the new Google Docs and Print programs. Although all of these results are relevant to the topic, I wanted to see the home page for the “cloud,” so I continued to search. Googlecloud.com offers a simple format in which search queries are displayed in the form of a tag cloud, with an emphasis on more popular search queries. Naturally, I also searched for the term “Google Cloud” here, which brought me back to the original Google search results. I went back to Docs and Print articles to find out if they offer more information. It was in these articles that I began to understand what “cloud” really means.
So it’s not just Google, so to speak, “in the clouds.” I found that Microsoft also has its own IBM I Cloud services, Azure and, accordingly, Skydrive. Google, along with Microsoft, IBM, Apple, and others offers storage for backing up documents and files on the Internet. These files are stored on a virtual hard drive, which can be accessed from anywhere, instead of tying you to a PC or flash drive. This makes sense with many other trends that we have seen recently from software and hardware developers. Everything is becoming more portable and affordable anytime, anywhere. Why don’t google get a piece of cake?
Cloud computing is, without a doubt, one of the hottest trends in technology today, but with this ease of access, the price also comes. Besides the apparent cash value, which varies by provider, the clouds also come with hidden risks. Many privacy advocates have raised concerns about what companies that offer these clouds do with information about them. Of course, in theory, clouds sound like a great idea, but do we let large corporations know too much about us? Also, Google still does not offer encryption in its cloud, except login information. This is an endless debate, as technology is continually evolving, and privacy is gradually eroding as we move further into the future.
So basically, Google offers alternative ways to access files on the go. Users can store data in the “clouds” that they pay for a piece. Although security in cloud databases is still not improved, even the US government uses similar cloud systems. We don’t know what the future holds for the Google IBM I Cloud or many other developing clouds, but if technical innovations such as Apple’s iPhone give us some hints, the clouds may be a new way to store files and save or print. Documents away from home or office. With Google’s massive presence on the Internet and the power of the Google brand, the Google cloud is likely to be one of the best in the clouds.
