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More specifically, an NSA owned and operated datacenter. They are offering access to other intelligence community services, so technically that would be "cloud
by luma 8y ago
More specifically, an NSA owned and operated datacenter. They are offering access to other intelligence community services, so technically that would be "cloud", but in this case it's NSA's own "cloud".
- blattimwind 8y agoThe usage of "cloud" is now so broad that basically Hacker News is a cloud, because I can log into it.
- api 8y agoPeer to peer networking is being rebranded as "fog" because its cloud brought down to encompass everything. So now your laptop, phone, fridge, and toilet are the cloud too.
- giancarlostoro 8y agoFridge and Toilet would fall more under IoT I would think no?
- ethbro 8y agoIoT definitely exists in the fog.
- mrjudgejoebrown 8y agoInternet of Turds in the case of the toilet.
- labster 8y agoToilets and refrigerators have always been connected to a series of tubes.
- hhh 8y agoThe prior being the brown-net, and the latter the bluenet.
- sslayer 8y agoThe "cloud" in my humble opinion, is just a rebranding of the 1970's mainframe. Everyone sharing resources - just more across multiple systems that 1. So instead of mainframe or cloud, the proper term should really be - Multiframe
- andor 8y agoThings should be seen in context. People here are trying to understand The Cloud as a technical term. They then see contradictions left and right because everything seems to be The Cloud now. It's definitely not a precise technical term anymore, but I'm pretty sure that the organizations switching expect some concrete benefits. Often, switching to "a cloud" simply means using a managed service. Either managed by another company/agency, or by another team in the same company/agency. That means it's not necessarily a technical decision, it's more about making their employees productive. The important thing to realize here for hackers is that not everybody has the same tech skills and needs. As opposed to the (more flexible) hardware in the basement server room, "The Cloud" is bought as a product for a specific purpose. The benefit to end-users is that they can concentrate on their core business, whatever that might be: - Cloud CRM customers can concentrate on CRM stuff. They don't have to worry about hardware, server administration, etc. - Application developers using a PaaS can concentrate on their app. The PaaS handles the lower levels: it keeps the app running, load balances traffic, keeps the app responsive (e.g. by scaling up number of app instances). - Operators of a PaaS can rely on a managed infrastructure layer. Not having to have in-house experts can be an advantage for companies/agencies that have difficulties attracting the right talent. And even for experts, working on the highest possible abstraction level, e.g. using a PaaS or "serverless" when writing an app, can improve efficiency a lot. Depending on the type of service, there are a few other benefits that people expect from "The Cloud", such as elasticity. Self-service and instant availability of resources to end-users is a big one for bureaucratic environments. My team needs a database. I can create one myself through The Cloud, and I don't have to go trough "the official channels" for a permit and then ask a DBA to actually do the work. The Cloud can work around old processes because it comes with risk management built-in. My team can have a resource limit, up to which we can flexibly book any resources we need. Auditing is also built-in. Operators of The Cloud can easily monitor resource usage across teams.
- PhasmaFelis 8y agoI've yet to see a single instance of "the cloud/in the cloud" that couldn't be replaced with "the internet/on the internet" and still mean essentially the same thing.