
Stop saying the cloud is just someone else's computer, because it's not - djsumdog
https://www.zdnet.com/article/stop-saying-the-cloud-is-just-someone-elses-computer-because-its-not/
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rs23296008n1
But the cloud _IS someone else 's computer_. _I_ don't own it. So if _I_ put
my data in the public cloud then _by definition_ it is _on someone else 's
computer_.

You can extol and iterate the virtues as much as you want. You can provide
guarantees and demonstrate all sorts of benefits. In the end, the general
cloud computing environment is still not yours: _it is someone else 's
computer_. _Even if you are renting it_.

Which is fine. Sometimes that is good. Sometimes not so good. Sometimes you
want the flexibility of spinning up a few hundred or thousand hours of server
time on machines you don't have to own. Other times you want a private cloud.

I've worked several projects where a private on-site cloud was significantly
cheaper to operate than a public cloud. The in/out costs smashed the cloud
savings. Flip side, a project needed to be able to rapidly spin up machines
_as needed_ from a template, public cloud was the only way.

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AshwinDurairaj
I think the phrase 'the cloud is not your computer' is actually useful, since
literally it is true and forces people to consider that they should be careful
with data management since all that data stored on the cloud is being managed
by a third party.

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user66927
> The simplest definition of cloud is a data centre that's full of identical
> hardware that no-one ever touches except to unpack it on day one and throw
> it away when it fails;

The hardware, yes.

> in between, every deployment, update, investigation, and management process
> is automated.

Well, that's simple not true. Maybe most if it is automated but not every.

And the thing that the author doesn't understand is that I don't own the
hardware, I don't ownbthe software and I don't own the data that's in the
server, even if the data is about me.

It is almost like renting an apartment but every furniture I buy and put in it
becames property of the apartment owner and I only have some pseudo-rights
about them.

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smcphile
The cloud may not be _just_ someone’s else’s computer, but someone else’s
computer (and other material) is certainly involved. When my career began, the
word we used was “outsourcing”.

There are advantages and disadvantages to outsourcing, or to using the cloud,
and a cost benefits analysis needs to be done on a case by case basis. I don’t
believe that’s changed much over the last thirty or so years, although the
details regarding the exact pros and cons has certainly changed.

