simplify "cloud" for me please (monitor, keyboard, sounds)
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"a computer network consisting of a worldwide network of computer networks that use the TCP/IP network protocols to facilitate data transmission and exchange"
Cloud = Internet.
The woman in the MS commercial that goes "to the cloud" to get some new pictures is getting them from a server on the internet run by MS.
The internet is hardware that runs *protocols* for moving data around. TCP/IP is a protocol.
The world wide web runs *on top of* the internet. The internet doesn't need the world wide web. But, the world wide web needs the internet. BTW, there are other "things" that run on the internet besides the world wide web.
The cloud doesn't equal the internet in the proper sense. The clould more equals the world wide web. You can have the world wide web, the clould, and proprietary systems (software) all running on the internet without any of them knowing the other exists. Or you can make them all aware of each other if you like.
Here, I think, is what is important when thinking about the cloud. When the woman goes to get the pictures, she looks at a list of pictures to choose from. The pictures on that list could be stored on an MS server or a different server in another country. Also, some of the pictures in that list could be on the MS server and some of them on a different server, but they are all shown in that one list. The clould means you don't know where *physically* the data is stored at any particular moment time.
In some respects I can see it being a lot safer, as hackers would have to launch attacks at say microsoft's servers.
That's only if you *assume* that all computers are connected to the internet. Some local area networks (LANs) and some standalone PCs are *not* connected to the internet.
Let me reiterate that. There are many large local networks that are *not* connected to the internet in any way!!!
PUT THEM ON AN INTERNET SERVER!
It's safe and secure.
Well, safe and secure is relative. A list of phone number for girls who are "appreciative" when you spend time with them would not be something you would want to store on an internet server.
They are not the same. The INTERNET is a highway dotted with stop-and-shops. The CLOUD is the hotel you pull into off of the highway.
ding ding ding! we have a winner says the op(me)
the only minor (very minor) issue i have with the word cloud is that a real-life cloud doesnt really store anything, does it? (rain i guess? lol) yet the marketing execs who are pushing the word cloud want that association (with storage) affixed to it. overall, the word is fine with me. it's light and fluffy. lol.
if the cloud is "more than just storage", then i'll have almost no issue with the word cloud because a real-life cloud floats above highways (highways being an old metaphor for the internet)
...yet the marketing execs who are pushing the word Cloud...
For the normal non-techie customer this is the easier way to go. This way the parking lot is included with the hotel rather than explaining that the parking lot getting its own set of directions seperate from the hotel.
Its better for them to look at an Icon on a Droid or an IPad as a short cut directing them to their program rather than it being a shrunk version of the program that runs when you have no connection to the Cloud, but runs at full version seamlessly when it finds an internet connection to the Cloud.
Just wait until it gets out that the tiny Thumb drives on the market have large enough storage on them and fast chips that they can plug it into any desktop/notebook and actually start their own desktop with their icons. Those of us in the know have been doing this with external hard drives for at least the past 10 years on Apples. And when you unplug it from the device, the device returns to its original state without ever knowing it was possessed.
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