Cloud Computing

Is cloud computing really the future? Based on what we’ve learned so far, I think the answer is obvious. Why would companies pay thousands of dollars to have their own in house servers, that require upkeep, maintenance and bear all the risks if they went down. Cloud computing allows people to share resources, software and information for a minimal fee, and allow someone else to deal with the technical difficulties that arise with hardware.

Recently my mother asked me to help her start-up her own website. She thoughts that we would need to talk to a consultant or hire someone to develop it for us. Having just learned about cloud computing, I visited the site devhub.com and within 10 minutes the website was up and running. For now we can run the site for free (because it's site.devhub.com), but for only $2 a month we can run it under our own name. Other sites like Google, and Amazon offer similar services, also at very low prices.

Cloud computing also allows sites to upgrade their servers at peek times. For example: McGill University has steady traffic on it's registration site year-round, but twice a year when registration officially opens for the upcoming semester, there is a drastic increase in the number of students accessing it. It seems as if it would be too costly to upgrade the entire server system, but by using cloud computing, McGill could increase their servers for that one day and it would cost them next to nothing.

The big issue that arises when talking about cloud computing, is the same issue when talking about outsourcing any function, is the elimination of jobs. Companies can completely eliminate their IT departments thus causing thousands of jobs to be eliminated. And while cloud computing is in all likeliness the future, there will be consequences that will effect the lives of many people.