However, the Internet itself must now endure the growth and change. Some of the most painful aspects of this growth will originate from the regulations and controls that accompany our internet community. The founding father of the Internet let his opinion of this matter be known today when he offered some advice on challenges associated with connecting, regulating, and securing the Internet cloud. We will have to learn some lessons as this shift in cloud technology occurs. Fortunately, us technical folk have pretty good foresight to see what's coming down our geek tunnels...
Just four short years ago I was driving with Dr. Vint Cerf to an event in Davis after a brief data-center tour and IPv6 discussion in Northern California. At the time, I was working on a project to explore first responder use of secure Internet-driven communications (Internet everywhere) in the event of a major Sacramento flood. During our drive, we discussed problems related to delays of connectivity and communication limitations that occurred during the Hurricane Katrina flood disaster (which had just happened a few years prior). I knew Vint was an excellent problem solver so I asked for his scientific recommendations on dealing with internet reliability so first responder communications would always be available during disaster rescue efforts. After our discussion, we both recognized that connectivity to the Internet was the critical path in our problem and required some sort of meshed wireless "store and forward" technology so the Internet would not go down during a disaster. "Internet connections must have more bandwidth, be more reliable, be everywhere, and have lots of redundancy for these communications to be available," we agreed.
Fast forward to present day and we now see an abundant use of mobile devices along with an increased demand for fiber-optic Internet connections, high speed mobile connections just about everywhere, and many fat WiFi pipes to download the apps and data that serve our needs. We also see more complicated software, computers, and operating systems that overwhelm our budgets. We also see a new industry building around cloud computing that is packed with industry events to help us understand how cloud technologies are evolving.
Fantastic! The future is here now and we must adapt to the shift. But why is this shift moving us towards the cloud instead of our safe, warm, comfortable, and secure offices?
Because building and securing technology driven things that are complicated can be riskier and more expensive than having someone else do it for us as a service or utility fee. You see, the cloud is the same technology we know and love but delivered as a utility with an operational expense rather than a once every-three-year capital expenditure that requires constant care. Computing as a subscribed utility is catching on because it lets us focus on the information and application that's important to our lives and businesses rather than the overhead of hardware, operating system, and updates required to make the application and data valuable.
Think about it! When was the last time you built your own power plant to run your factory or to power your home? Did you buy a truck and hire your own employee to run garbage from your office or home directly to the land fill? When was the last time you told your employees, "Hey, we need more office space so let's grab a hammer, some lumber, start making concrete, and let's build a bigger office!" Well, that's exactly what we have been doing with our office technology. Then every three to five years we have to rip it out and replace it to support the "newer" version. With the cloud, by handing over the control of selective technologies to cloud utilities, we can keep up with our rapidly changing and complex technology.
What are some of those options? Well, we can put our servers at Amazon and scale out one, two, or hundreds of servers on an EC2 build in fifteen minutes, pay as we use them, always have the latest version, and ramp servers and applications down when we don't need them anymore. We can subscribe to Microsoft Office 365 or Google Apps and dump some of our server expenses altogether. We can even get rid of our phone system and sign up for a virtual pbx service so all we have to do is buy the handsets!
The point is that the Internet is generally reliable and fast enough these days that the cloud must be taken seriously. We must face the reality that we just can't scale some of our infrastructure fast enough to keep up the pace of growth, seasons, or changes in the business climate. Going to the cloud makes sense because cloud solutions scale up or down thus saving us time and money because we only pay for what we use.
Admittedly, we have a ways to go before the cloud is reliable enough to house ALL of our technology. However, I must admit that in this technologist's opinion, we can start moving email, some servers, backups, and other infrastructure and applications to reliable cloud providers. Fortunately, this technologist also specializes in everything Internet and believes that cloud technology is only going to get better, easier, more secure, and less expensive.
CLOSING FACT: Having a "control" issue? Did you know that ever since you first connected to the Internet, you have been relying on servers in the cloud that you have NO control over? Those servers are DNS root servers and they make it possible to type in a web address in your browser instead of a complicated, and difficult to remember, IP address. Without DNS, websites can't exist unless you know their IP address.
As of late, technology has really begun to shape an "on the go" culture. The cloud based phone service allows users to receive voicemail straight to their mobile devices, as well as have calls forwarded to those devices. It really simplifies "staying connected" with your business while traveling, on vacation, or at home.
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