Help I’m in the Cloud!

By Erik Hekman on 20 January 2011

If someone told me five years ago that my data, my precious data, would be in the hands of a third party such as Dropbox I would have never believed him. The same matter for not owning a MP3 collection anymore, but streaming it for 10 euros each month using Spotify. In an information-centered society the data one owns becomes crucial for survival. Work, photo’s, bank account information, contact details, email correspondence, and other relevant information are neatly stored in folders on hard drives and (if someone is smart enough to back up) external hard disks. The thought of my data leaving the room would have frightened me five years ago.

But here I am, using Dropbox for the Roots2Share project and my literature collection for my PhD research. This data does not exist on my internal or external hard disks but in the Cloud! Well technically it does. My files are still on my computer but every time I save it gets automagically uploaded to the servers of Dropbox. It feels safe to know that, even if my house would burn down, my files regarding work and important projects are safe.

Sure the web acted as an enabling-technology for services such as Dropbox. While this is true, little attention is given to the developments around these enabling Web technologies. Observing the price of disk space one can notice a considerable drop the last three decades. In 1980, one megabyte costs approximately $192.31 and in 2009 one gigabyte approximately $0.07. Around 2000 a gigabyte would cost approximately $12 and in 2004, four years later approximately $1. Hosting providers could—due to the relatively low disk space prices—offer more disk space at lower subscription fees for individuals who wanted to start a Website or a service such as Dropbox.

Another price change is the one of connecting to the Internet. The most common method to get online in the 90s was to use a dial-up modem and pay per minute/tick. Early 2000, broadband Internet became mainstream. Now consumers and businesses can get online 24/7 without paying per minute but by paying a steady subscription fee. These prices also dropped considerably this decennia stimulating Internet usage in affluent societies. There is also a considerable change in the bandwidth of connection. A standard 14.4 (2400 baud) modem could reach a top speed of 14.4 kbit/s while broadband and fiber reach into the Megabytes.

We saw the combination of cheap Web space and fast Internet connections transform the Internet. Without it, popular services such as YouTube could never exist. Where will this eventually lead to? Personally my biggest wish is Cloud Gaming. Why own an Xbox, Playstation or a machine that is powerful enough to run the newest games? I just want to hook up my Mac Book to the Internet and play the latest Playstation 3 game from the Cloud. All for a small fee of course. Perhaps it is better that it is not working yet. If FarmVille is a great way to spend office hours. Imagine what the newest Mario, Final Fantasy or Call of Duty would do for the procrastination.

tagged with: cloud, gaming, internet

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