Cloud Computing Intro

If you have paid any attention to advances in information technology over the past few years, you are probably familiar with the idea of cloud technology. At the very least, you have heard the phrase. What many people do not know, however, is that they come into contact with this new and innovative technology on a regular basis. Whether it is in online shopping, music, business or online gaming, cloud storage is becoming the new standard with which we organize and access our data, our files, and our media. But what is cloud storage in the first place? Simply put, it is a model of online data storage and computing. Over a network, data is stored and accessed through pools that are virtualized. These pools and storage services are usually hosted by third party companies who store data for a nominal fee (Gilmer, 2011).

One of the best and most well-known examples of a third party company using cloud computing and storage is Amazon.com. Their Amazon Web Services branch is in charge of hosting and data storage for a bevy of websites (Research and Markets, 2011). On the retail side of things, their Amazon Cloud service is used to store music that is bought by users. Those files can then be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. ITunes has something similar with their iTunes Match service. This program uses a cloud to sync files that are bought through apple to all of a user’s apple products. For example, if I were to buy a song on my iPad, it would sync automatically to my iPhone through the apple cloud (Research and Markets, 2011). Similar uses of cloud storage and computing are used by well-known gaming services, such as Xbox Live, as well as by businesses that communicate and share files over a cloud.

            Cloud technology is becoming an essential aspect of how we communicate, access files, and store data. It is a relatively new technology with potential ethical and legal implications. It also has potential benefits to information technology that are still being imagined. This paper will attempt to explore this background as well as the potential benefits and issues of cloud technology in order to help articulate what this new technology is, and where it has the potential to take information technology.