The use of cloud computing helps bring forth a rare occurrence where a large corporate technology will help people on their computers at home. This paper will provide a snapshot of the advantages of cloud computing as well as the risks, and also illuminating how cloud works, and how it can help you better access your data and software. The future of cloud computing can be very exciting, but moving more of our lives online means we will inevitably have to consider the consequences, as we are already starting to see in this new digital era. Cloud computing means dependence on things that are not right in front of us, and that could limit our privacy because of policies to access our information. Security could be a big issue and large companies like Amazon and Google could eventually monopolize the market, as we already see in the United States with a similar case of Comcast potentially monopolizing the internet service provider market. The cloud is a metaphor for the space on the internet that can store your data, as well as applications that have the capability to change it. Nobody can agree on when the term “cloud computing” was first defined. There is however, agreement on the definition of cloud computing. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as “a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”(1) A computer’s operating system, data and applications are typically installed and stored in the traditional computer setup, where a hard drive is connected to...
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...because of policies to access our information, security could be a big issue and large companies like Amazon and Google could go on to monopolize the market. The Cloud provides an online environment that can be scaled to suit the needs of the user. The risk of the cloud could be the security of the information being stored by a large company. It is still unclear how safe out-sourced data as ownership of data is not always clear. Businesses should monitor cloud service providers, have protocols to ensure compliance with the providers rules, and ensure that policies are in place to monitor and manage cloud service providers, offshore vendors and their associated outsourcing relationships. The future of cloud computing is certainly exciting, but moving more of our lives online means we will inevitably have to consider privacy, security and ownership of the information.
