Cloud computing, defined as "the applications delivered as services over the Internet and the hardware and systems software in the data centers that provide those services," is so common nowadays, it's almost as hard to explain as the existence of numbers. Despite the fact that everything is in the cloud today, it's still a new concept to many, which means the consequences of cloud computing is not well understood by many users as well. However, I think cloud computing was the ultimate goal, or inevitable side effect, of the birth of the World Wide Web in the late 80s.
As a computer scientist, I recognize the awe and incredibility that is cloud computing. How marvelous is it to be able to buy cheap commodity hardware and just add a software layer to maximize performance and scalability? What about being able to outsource your data storage, also to maximize cost? There are so many incredible things you can do, taking advantage of this current Cloud Computing Era, that both make living easier and help advance society.
However, I don't think everything is fine and dandy. I am a big believer in the idea that, as soon as you use the Internet, you've made yourself vulnerable to your data being stolen. There really isn't a way around the simple fact that absolute data privacy pretty much requires confiscation of all Internet-enabled devices. Along with becoming a rogue unix goddess, one of my life goals is to go completely rogue in general, completely offline. We'll see...
Along these lines, I am not a fan of IoT. I think the idea is neat, maybe, but not even close to being beneficial enough to weigh out the costs of that kind of vulnerability. I also think it's incredible that my overarching qualm with IoT is the overarching goal of IoT developers. At my internship this past summer, I was in an IoT reading group because I was on the Cloud Storage team. One week, we discussed the future of IoT and the current goals that industry leaders have in regards to that field. The presenter told us that the idea is to completely abstract the user from their household, rendering them decision-less. The IoT developers in the room saw this as desirable, because it let the users relax and ease their day-to-day concerns and tasks. However, the cloud storage researchers were in complete horror and shock. One guy even thought it was some drawn-out prank. Why on Earth would you want your washer to be able to make decisions on its own? To be able to access the Internet and contact outside sources and people on its own? Why would you voluntarily add a new vulnerability to your household, another avenue to worry about your data being stolen? But this is what they want. This is how they see the future. They aren't being malicious about it, they just see this sort of technological advance as something worth more than data privacy. This is incredible to me.
In the end, I don't trust the Cloud. I know, it's odd to say, coming from someone who calls herself a Computer Scientist, someone who always wants to stay at the leading edge of her field, someone who even did research on cloud storage at a point. I know using the Cloud is inevitable. I use it all the time. I am one of those Millenials who use Facebook to keep track of their friends (mainly because I'm a poor texter/caller and would ultimately lose track of some people near and dear to my heart), most of my work and tinkerings are stored or executed in the Cloud, and I know a lot of my personal data is also out there for many people to go out and grab if they had time for a small stalking session. So why do I even worry about data privacy when it's already too late for me? I think that question is as stupid as this one question I was asked by a prof: why should we work towards solving issues that don't directly affect us? The reason is that the world doesn't stop for an individual person, and only worrying about yourself is one of the most detrimental acts to our society.
AWS allows you to increase the speed of research by running high performance computing in the cloud and to reduce costs by providing Cluster Compute or Cluster GPU servers on-demand without large capital investments.
Cloud, or HSC, by contrast, focuses on hitting the price/performance sweet spot, using truly commodity components and buying lots more of them. This means building very large and scalable systems.
Cloud computing refers to both the applications delivered as services over the Internet and the hardware and systems software in the data centers that provide those services. The services themselves have long been referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS).a Some vendors use terms such as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service) to describe their products, but we eschew these because accepted definitions for them still vary widely.