Reading 07: The Cloud

Cloud Computing is the leveraging of large amounts of machines that will remotely store information or make computations. This allows individuals and small companies to have much more potential without having to invest in a computing/storage cluster themselves. There are several ethical issues that stem from this. One issue is the privacy issues involved. Should the government be allowed to demand access to a person’s data being stored by a cloud computing company for use in an investigation as the US did following the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris. Another ethical issue pertinent to cloud computing is the ethics involved in the company protecting your data. Are they morally and legally at fault if they promise safe storage, yet some of your information gets leaked in a hack?

As a developer, the benefits of the Cloud outweigh any potential problems with the Cloud. Being able to remotely sync with other coders through GitHub to produce cohesive code is invaluable. Having this ability opens up the doors to coders and is what has allowed so many open source projects to be so successful. I have used both GitHub and Bitbucket, and have been quite satisfied with both. It has made the projects I was working on quite easy to coordinate with partners. One potential disadvantage of using the Cloud to develop is if the service you are using goes down. This has happened to GitHub several times and could lead to lost productivity and/or missed deadlines.

As a consumer, the main advantage to using the cloud is that it provides a cheap way to store huge amounts of information or leverage computing power. You don’t need to buy an expensive hard drive to store your data, you can just store it on your Google Drive for free. Another advantage is that it is amorphous in that increasing or decreasing your use is very easy and does not require planning or updating infrastructure as would be required if you are operating from a private data center. Despite these advantages, there are some disadvantages. Privacy and security are the biggest concerns for consumers. There is a heightened sense of danger when your information is being stored somewhere you can’t physically see. It is possible for hackers to get huge amounts of data in one swoop as so much information is on the cloud, making your data potentially a bigger target. In addition, there is the concern that the company or the government could be accessing the data that you are storing without your knowledge. Given our discussions on the governments domestic surveillance practices, I don’t think they would be able to resist at least trying to get access to all data being stored by Google or Amazon’s servers. Another disadvantage is how the machines that power the cloud consume huge amounts of energy to run and be cooled. I use iCloud as a way to back-up my iPhone. When I get a new phone, the transition will be extremely easy as all my contact information and other information is stored remotely and I can just download it onto my new phone. I also use Google Drive to store a lot of pictures, videos and documents.

I feel that I am trading some security of my data and potential privacy for convenience and economy, and right now I’m ok with that. I trust the Cloud enough to rely on it to store such things as pictures, music, contact information, or other such data, but not enough to entrust other more sensitive information. I don’t, for example, have enough trust that I would put a scan of my social security card on the Cloud.