Article 1 - Straightening Out Cloud Computing

The author talks about how he is apprehensive of the proposed cloud computing systems. He thinks that the user will be losing control of how and where their data is stored as well what software they are using. He says that the desktop revolution was about taking personal control of computing and not having to share it with someone else. I agree with the author because we have gone from a state of computing where we had to lease time on large mainframes to be able to make use of them, to having laptops that are light and can be carried around easily with us. I feel that this is a step backwards and will eventually fail or be merged with another technology.

I mention the fact that it might be merged with another technology because it may be useful to have cloud computing for certain things such as photo storage but it is not very useful for word processing, which is better done locally on a desktop or laptop. The author talks about how email on the web is a good part of cloud computing and I agree completely, since our school email is mostly accessed by the students through Outlook Web Access and the little that do access it through their local email software such as Outlook do so using IMAP which keeps the messages on the server as well.

The author also talks about Winzip having an online utility that will take any compressed file and send it to you in familiar ZIP format. I believe this is a very useful piece of cloud computing software because it allows the downloading of many proprietary compressed files without having to download an unknown uncompressing program that might bring harm to our computer. Another technology that is very useful in cloud form is customer relationship management or CRM software because if it is located in a cloud then it can be accessed by all employees and everybody can make changes and additions as they come up.

References:
Article Link: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2329303,00.asp
Guide to cloud computing: http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/hosted_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208700713