Cloud Computing – New Tech in CS

Author: Ishita Verma

Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the internet. These services are divided into three main categories: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS). The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that is often used to represent the Internet in flowcharts and diagrams.

It is elastic -- a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time. It brings mobility and cost savings to the organizations. My Gmail, Google Drive that I use day in day out, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram are all cloud-based applications. “Zoom” has become the key collaboration platform since COVID 19, is also a cloud-based solution. It is super easy to use. I share documents with friends, and we all collaborate using google docs for assignments that we have to finish as a team. I do not need to download a document from my email, work on it, and send it to my friend for her updates. We all can work in parallel and can see what each of us is doing. Once we finish, we submit it to our teacher. Our Physics teacher always wanted to edit access to the document so that he could see what each person contributed to and accordingly grade us. This was a great benefit that I found that even if you are working as a team, the teacher can very well see the contributions of each student.

Once I saw my middle schooler brother using google docs as a chatting tool. He was supposed to work with a friend to compile some Geography project and I saw him typing messages to a friend and the friend was in turn sending messages back. That was innovative for them to use the document as a chatting tool that I could not think of.

Career Choices: While cloud computing remotely manages networks, cloud providers will always need IT staff to maintain data regulation, distribution, and storage. It is expected that cloud computing will affect IT jobs most strongly in the next 5-10 years. The adoption of cloud computing will migrate IT positions rather than eliminate them. IT jobs are expected to see reduced in-house demands, while the creation of new IT positions are expected to rise that assist with the remote maintenance of cloud networks.

Work: With cloud computing, employees can now work remotely. Virtual desktops can access files from anywhere and at any time. Organizations can even provide secure remote access to all of its remote employees. With this, there is a reduced risk of virus outbreaks and other security threats.

While it is cool and advantageous to use cloud-based applications, but everything comes for a price. When our schools started online during mid-March this year, I could not open our online itslearning platform as there was a lot of load on that it crashed, everyone was trying to access it and we had issues. It was a frustrating experience that I could not do anything for a couple of days. Since cloud computing systems are internet-based, service outages are always an unfortunate possibility and can occur for any reason. Though I store my photos on google cloud and can enjoy them anywhere, I still am not 100% sure how safe my personal photos are on the cloud. I get worried about the Security of cloud storage when I hear about credit card data breaches etc.

To evolve and become better is a way of life. I am sure with the research and advancements going on in improving Cloud computing, we will soon see the risks in cloud computing mitigated. But even until then, the benefits outweigh the risks it has.