Cloud computing is the raising star in computer science. It harbors enormous potential and attracts some of the field’s most brilliant minds. The term cloud computing is often used broadly. Cloud computing is a type of computing that provides shared computing resources and data on demands. As explained in the article The era of cloud computing, “cloud computing refers to an efficient method of managing lots of computer servers, data storage and networking.” Compared to the long-existing idea of shared resources in computer science, cloud computing has three new aspects: the appearance of infinite computing resources, the elimination of upfront commitments of cloud users and cloud users’ ability to pay for the service on demand and for short periods of times.
Cloud computing is an incredibly powerful tool for developers. It allows them to gain access to a vast amount of storage and computing power. The parallel nature of cloud computing also contributes to speedup and higher efficiency. Cloud computing is especially beneficial to individuals and small companies. The company called SynapDx, which analyzes the genetics of autism, mentioned in the article The era of cloud computing is a perfect example of how cloud computing makes it possible for small company to work on big data projects. On the other hand, cloud computing does not beat local computing in all categories. The overhead of cloud computing can be significant if the dataset is small. And the communications among machines using and maintaining the cloud service is not completely fault tolerant. As a result, there is a tradeoff in cloud computing between data size and the problem of overhead and fault tolerance. Developers should consider if cloud computing is appropriate for their projects.
Cloud computing also offers many perks to consumers. Like developers, they are able to access large amount of data, including movies, tv shows, music and games. With large storage provided on cloud service, the need for personal physical storage devices such as CDs, DVDs and USB drives is diminished. This centralized storage is also better managed and organized. The disadvantages of cloud computing from a consumer’s perspective are issues with data security. A cloud service I frequently use is iCloud, and in 2014 there were issues with their data security when hackers leaked private photos of many celebrities. Therefore, the tradeoff in cloud computing for consumers is between the ease of storing and accessing large amount of data and the risk of having their privacy violated due to security risks in the cloud.
With the rapid advances in cloud computing, many of its ethical issues become apparent. A major concern is data security. The more connected the machines are in the cloud network, the more cautious we have to be about blocking unauthorized access within the network. According to the article Computing goes to the Cloud. So does crime, “Just as recent hacks reached critical information through innocuous-seeming things like heating and air-conditioning systems that were networked to other computers, cloud systems may have even more pathways in, and a greater number of potential targets out — basically, any connected devices.” However, security issue is not a unique problem for cloud computing, and the problem cannot mask its many benefits. The discussion on the ethics of cloud computing should focus on how to accommodate the storage of sensitive information on a platform that encourages sharing resources, in another word, how to give consumers the choice to control their degree of sharing. Cloud service companies need to ensure the security of the data their customers entrusted them.
As mentioned in the beginning, cloud computing is a relatively new field of computer science. Researchers are still working on fixing many of its issues. As mentioned in the article Computing goes to cloud. So does crime, “While caution is necessary, not all is doom and gloom. For one thing, the concentration of core computing systems into clouds means that computers are likely to be better managed, security flaws more frequently and thoroughly patched, and devices inspected in a more uniform way. All of those things are improvements over the current state of affairs.” Cloud computing technology will become increasingly mature and find its applications in many areas.
xuanyilicse40175 