Yan Pritzker photographer, entrepreneur, software engineer, musician, skier

Storing your stuff online is not cloud computing

I’ve noticed people have been saying things like “I am cloud computing because my mail is now on gmail ZOMG”. Storing your mails on the internets is not cloud computing, it’s just online storage. Uploading pics from your phone directly to the web is not cloud computing. Google docs is not cloud computing. Just storing something on the Intarweb does not mean you’re “using cloud computing”. So stop abusing my favorite buzzword :-)

Cloud computing is a far more interesting and far reaching shift than the ability to store your stuff ‘out there’. I think the fundamental principle that defines cloud computing is on-demand resource provisioning. Whether it’s storage or computing power, it means that startups no longer have to spend money up front on data centers. It means that enterprises can save tons of money by not having servers out there idling and burning cash.

And even though there are detractors who will say “cloud computing is grid technology rebranded with a new buzzword”, they are just like the people who said “AJAX is DHTML and we had it in the 90s”. These people are missing the point. Having terminology to describe a phenomenon is a Good Thing. It enables us to easily refer to it and build on top of it. But let’s make sure we understand what’s happening before we apply this new buzzword to every online service under the sun, because then we’re limiting its usefulness.

Yup. What he said. Some people need to refactor their vocabulary.

Aren’t you basically saying that if you’re building on top of it, then it’s “cloud computing”, but if you’re using a product built on top of it, then it’s now “cloud computing”?

Lets say one of these startups uses cloud computing to quickly launch a terribly popular web app. Are users of the app not using cloud computing?

What I’m saying is that there is a significant change in the industry occurring and it is called ‘cloud computing’. Storing your stuff online is not a new thing. I’m not saying google is not innovative and gmail and gdocs are awesome things, no doubt. But they are not cloud computing. Even if they’re built on top of cloud infrastructure (which ,afaik, they are not).

The point I’m bringing up here is that some people seem to confuse SaaS and cloud computing. They are not the same thing even if one can be built on top of the other.

I am approaching the cloud from the end-user perspective, where its all foggy up there, and all that matters is how easy it is to interact with my own personal data on the smallest footprint of a device.
I’m an anticipated fan of the CherryPal C100, which is being touted as a cloud computer. The CherryPal™ C100 desktop is about the size of a paperback book with the performance you would expect from a full-size desktop computer. It has Freescale’s triple-core mobileGT processor for multimedia performance and feature-rich user interfaces, while only consuming as much power as a clock radio. CherryPal uses 80 percent fewer components than a traditional PC, and because it has no moving parts, it operates without making a sound and will last 10 years or more. I am excited about how the CherryPal can bridge barriers to people who have not had access to computers or the internet because of money, fear, education or other challenges. I will be commenting on my experience of using it on my blog as soon as I get my own CherryPal C100! You can use CODE CPP206 to get your own CherryPal for $10 less than purchase price. CherryPal for Everyone at http://cherrypal.blogspot.com

(that “now” should have been a “not” in my previous comment)

“they are not cloud computing. Even if they’re built on top of cloud infrastructure”

See, I disagree. I’d argue that if something is built on cloud infrastructure, then it’s cloud computing. Can you clarify the distinction?

Ie. *if* google docs is built on top of storage on demand, computation on demand infrastructure – then it’s build on cloud infrastructure and it’s users are partaking of cloud computing..

That said, the availability of cloud infrastructure to Joe developer is definitely a new trend.

@Solmn, Thanks for your very thinly veiled spam.

@Igor

All I’m saying here is that you don’t say you’re using nuclear power when you’re using your lightbulb at home if your electricity comes from a nuclear power plant. Even if it’s true, it misses the point. Here are two statements

1. “I call the amazon EC2 api to dynamically provision resources – I am using cloud computing”

2. “I just uploaded my pics from my camera to the web. Thank goodness for cloud computing”

Do you see how statement #2 completely misses the point of what cloud computing is. Even if it’s true that google docs is built on top of cloud infrastructure. People who say #2 by and large do not understand what cloud computing actually means. They are just latching on to a buzzword and misapplying it. This causes the word to actually become diluted and start to mean SaaS. We already have a word for SaaS so I am trying to show the difference between SaaS an cloud computing. In the same way as there is a difference between electricity and a nuclear power plant. By the way, #2 is a direct paraphrase of something I heard on twitter.

cloud computing is not for end users. it is intended for developers and business logic.

cloud computing impacts the end users as companies pay what they use and bill the consumer the right price

company that are not going this way will continue to waste resources and energy and will be surpassed by their concurrent

running a service that is located in a particular area on the planet can take advantage of cloud computing, because it needs to scale regarding the load during the day

for that, your cloud computing service should be able to charge at an hour level

[...] argued that the most important and game changing factor of cloud computing is not the idea of storing your stuff on the interweb, (which is just SaaS, a concept that is ten years old), but on-demand resource provisioning (this [...]

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Yan I get your point.
It’s all confusing.
Uploading to a site is just basic web storage or SAAS.
True cloud computing is the ability to access said photos from anywhere and any device with/or without internet access!
This technology isn’t really alive yet,but it’s close!
We need internet at all times to access said clouds,thus it is not completely free-form.
Web OS is almost close. Also you are right. Gmail is the real cloud as is Google Docs.
So to speak.
But saving to these is just ’saving to the cloud’.
Running the network itself is the ‘accessing the cloud’.

Example of true clouding for those still like huh?:

I can access my EYEOS or Gmail account from my PC,cell,Nokia 810,college campus,familes house computer,neighbors house,your house,ect.
It runs from any platform and anytime and anywhere.
The technology thus in itself is ‘accessing the cloud’.