[Discuss] What Happens when a cloud service shuts down

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

Very specifically, cloud is just another way of saying mainframe
computing the way it used to be.
Historically, computing has decentralized since the 1970s, especially
with the advent of the PC. Now, companies are using the "cloud" to
essentially bring data back into the control of the IT people. In a
business, generally the IT people have the mission to protect the
integrity and security of the data.
With respect to the "cloud" being pushed by backup companies and others,
it is simply like using an external disk drive except you don't know
where it is. But, essentially it is just a buzzword that is very popular
now.

On 01/20/2012 04:01 PM, Daniel C. wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 2:35 PM, Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org> wrote:
>> Theoretically, a cloud is a virtual storage device where the actual storage
>> media should be in several different locations fully mirrored.
> I understand the value of backups, and I understand the value of
> virtual computing, and parallel computing, and other things.  Could
> someone (and I apologize if this is OT to the thread) explain to me
> what exactly the buzzword "cloud computing" means, exactly?  My BS
> detector flashes every time someone says it, but I have been wrong
> once (okay, *maybe* twice) in the past.  Is it just a way of saying
> that you have a distributed, parallel app whose individual nodes can
> come online (or go offline) dynamically without interrupting the
> service?  Is it strictly used to reference data storage - as in the
> original email in this thread - or does it mean more than that?
>


-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
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