Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The difference between Cloud Computing and Cloud Storage

The cloud is all the rave these days, thanks in part to the Windows 7 commercials--which I have yet to figure out the meaning of, by the way. But, one thing their advertising has done is to bring the term "cloud computing" into every sphere of computer usage, from home computers to enterprise networks. But, as with any new lingo coined by the masses, its definitions vary widely. I would like to offer one important point of clarity that I believe we can all agree on:

There is a difference between cloud data storage and true cloud computing.

Cloud data storage has actually been going on for years, if not over a decade. Companies have long shared files via FTP, shared drives, even newer SaaS products like DropBox. In fact, Google Docs made it's debut as a cloud sharing tool to many small businesses, not a cloud computing tool. While their word processor and spreadsheet tools were woefully under-developed, the ability to store office documents online and collaborate with anyone was quite a succeess.

But this differs categorically from true cloud computing because the manipulation of this cloud-stored data is still done on the local machine. Cached updates and even command processes are done on the local RAM and local CPU. When the user is done, he/she simply publishes the changes to the cloud for others to see.

Cloud computing, on the other hand, puts the computing itself on the cloud. The simplest example is Google Docs as it's used today. People open their doc in the browser, where, with the exception of some client-side javascript commands, the actual computing is done in the cloud.

But this puts a new strain on broadband networks, and makes desktop computing stats obsolete. Whereas we used to talk about how fast the computer's processor was, and how large of a bus it had, now the processor speed that matters is the server's, but the bus is the broadband connection. If your pipe to and from the server is not big enough--if your broadband speed is too slow--then your cloud computing experience might not be all its cracked up to be.

In the next era of cloud computing, the discussion over a CPU's speed will be replaced by the discussion over how fast a set of commands can make it from terminal to server--from desktop to the cloud. Cloud computing changes everything.

Labels: Broadband, Broadband Speed, Cloud Computing