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I think we can skip the "cloud" here because I am in that business, that for whatever you want, it is out there, somewhere.........in a data center of servers, hard drives, switches, UPS, etc.. I know the cloud isn't Asgard but somewhere on the ground somewhere....at least once.......right?
The "cloud" is just a hand-waving abstraction for "not on your premises or in your computer". Conceptually (and often in reality) it is a server or servers in a data center someplace. Those servers might be physical hardware or they might be virtual machines. Yes they are in actual buildings on the ground with diesel backup generators and physical security, because companies want to know their data is "safe" even though it's just inconvenienced electrons.
I work for a company that provides services to US and Canadian users through a web site. Where that physically is, is somewhere in Chicago IL with fallback on the east and west coasts in case of disaster. But customers need not know or care. All they care about is if they go to our web site, it responds to them and provides the desired information.
Sometimes in the middle of the night the servers hesitate for a second or two because the vendor (Microsoft Azure in this case) is moving our virtual servers to new physical hardware because they are upgrading or something broke. I swear one of these days this stuff is going to be so far from the actual "metal" that even the vendor won't know what it's physically running on. If that hasn't happened already, lol.
........I work for a company that provides services to US and Canadian users through a web site. Where that physically is, is somewhere in Chicago IL with fallback on the east and west coasts in case of disaster. But customers need not know or care. All they care about is if they go to our web site, it responds to them and provides the desired information.
........
I remember the ignorance in the early days, in the last century, of the Net. Everyone was getting hooked into their phone accounts, it was a rush, and one looks over at me and a coworker and asks what were we there for. We hooked a thumb to the machine room behind us and said "Mainfame!" to which they responded "Scoff! Obsolete technology!".
When I told that to one of our systems people. "Obsolete technology? I'd like to see their precious Net work without rooms of equipment!".
My boss at the time had another instance where an instructor no less was telling him, "Jack, we don't need the mainframe anymore. We have the Net and personal pages!" to which he responded, "Well, Arthur, where do you think your personal page is stored?"....and he said watching them at that point was like seeing a light bulb light up.
The cloud is not like there is some fleet of AWACS up there and really, I see no difference of decades of linked telecommunications (computers and telephone) except with improvements in technology, in the machines that do it, and how those machines run......but someone decided to put a fancy marketing term on it and the masses are awed.
The cloud is not like there is some fleet of AWACS up there and really, I see no difference of decades of linked telecommunications (computers and telephone) except with improvements in technology, in the machines that do it, and how those machines run......but someone decided to put a fancy marketing term on it and the masses are awed.
But.......is this correct?
Not really. One is centralized, the other is distributed. Generally, mainframe hardware is centralized and expensive. Cloud hardware is distributed and can be scaled way down at a fraction of the cost, yet provide a robust, redundant service, allowing an inexpensive server/location to take over if the primary inexpensive one needs maintenance. Providing that level of failure protection with a mainframe at a comparable price is not an option.
Not really. One is centralized, the other is distributed. Generally, mainframe hardware is centralized and expensive. Cloud hardware is distributed and can be scaled way down at a fraction of the cost, yet provide a robust, redundant service, allowing an inexpensive server/location to take over if the primary inexpensive one needs maintenance. Providing that level of failure protection with a mainframe at a comparable price is not an option.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Thank you.
I should have been more clear. My section rather left the mainframe behind during the Bush Administration. We are in servers now. What I was talking about was the cloud is really nothing more than data centers around the world. Granted, unlike the old days, it is probably a lot more fiber than copper.
I should have been more clear. My section rather left the mainframe behind during the Bush Administration. We are in servers now. What I was talking about was the cloud is really nothing more than data centers around the world. Granted, unlike the old days, it is probably a lot more fiber than copper.
You're welcome. "The cloud" is more of a complete solution. A data center is a location and infrastructure to house a portion of the solution.
But even saying it's "delivered via the Internet" can be a bit confusing because many if not most people watch streaming video on their TVs, not the Internet, at least some of the time.
Yes, they watch it ON THIER TV through an app that is still STREAMED TO THE TV over the internet.
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