Cloudy future

We are now on the threshold of a new era of cloud computing.

I do not quite understand why we call remote server computing cloud. Of course, now it is worth remembering the ruvds, which launched the server in a balloon and Microsoft with a data center under water , but, in fact, we live "close" to the servers, which will soon become our main method of calculation.

What is cloud computing? Roughly speaking, instead of the power of our computers, we use the power of remote computers to which we connect over the network.

If you dream a little, then soon we will no longer need powerful computers, and your old computer on the Pentium and GTX 460 (I write from this) will be able to run all the new games. Well, I think it is now clear why this is the future. But what is needed for this and what are we missing?

• Fast mobile networks with a minimum speed of at least 10 Gb / s
  The past exhibition MWC 2019 proved that such speeds will soon be available to us, because only a lazy company did not present its 5G smartphone. In Russia, the situation with this is not to say what is great, but, like 4G, despite all the bans of mines. defense, I think, 5G is rapidly burst into our lives. At first, it will not work without sins, but over time, everything will be decided, as it was with 4G. I think the 5G network in major cities of Russia can be expected by 2021.
• Software
  Companies like Google, Apple, IBM and Ebay should break into the game because they have some of the largest data centers in the world that can provide us with more data transfer capacity.

We already use programs in everyday life that will be used everywhere in the future.

Cloud Storage

We simply call them "clouds", because this is the only technology that is used on a permanent basis, or at least tried, probably, everything. Cloud storage data centers, as well as your disks, can burn / wear out and your data may disappear, nobody is insured against it. But a huge plus of clouds is that you have access to all your files from any device with an internet connection.

The most popular clouds (The size of the storage, which can be obtained free of charge):

• Yandex Disk (10 GB + bonuses)
• Cloud Mail.ru (In 2013 - 1 TB, now - 8 GB)
• Dropbox (2 GB + bonuses)
• Google Drive (15 GB)
• MediaFire (10 GB + bonuses)
• Mega (Until 2017 - 50 GB, now - 15 GB + bonuses)
• pCloud (10 GB)
• OneDrive (5 GB)

The latter is already built into Windows Explorer and connected to the account through which you logged into the OS.

Personally, I am pleased that Yandex is now one of the key players in the cloud storage market. I use it for a long time and I have already accumulated more than 50 GB, just follow the shares.

Thus, we can get rid of huge size hard drives. SSD can be useful for quick recording of the downloaded file, but large size is not needed, because it is needed mainly for temporary files, but this is up to the time when all the programs will integrate with the clouds. This is a problem because different applications will only integrate with the cloud storage that collaborates with them. For example, you use Yandex, and the program only supports Dropbox. This is partly solved by protocols like WebDav / FTP, but so far there are many problems with them.

Web applications

Agree, it is very convenient when you can simply enter the url address and use the necessary functionality. No need to download, download updates, etc. All web applications are in this category, because there are already a lot of them and can replace 90% of the programs installed on our computers. For example, Photopea , which is a good analogue of Photoshop. Although I would be glad that Adobe transferred all of its software to the web, but it is possible to do it, but it is extremely difficult.

But suddenly you want the application to work offline. No problem, there is Electron and Ionic, which will turn any web application into a program on absolutely any OS. All this would not have happened if it were not for Google with their open source Chromium.

I myself am a Web developer and I want to say that web application technologies are developing incredibly rapidly. Now the main problem is probably the language in which they are written - this is incomparable and well-known JavaScript. Now WebAssembly is in full swing, which will give a huge increase in the speed of web applications.

Documents

I would like to highlight this category separately from web applications.

We all often work with a kind of documents. These can be: abstracts, articles on Habr, customer databases in Excel or something else, depending on your type of activity. I think this is the most primitive cloud service that can be created, but nevertheless, it is needed and in demand.

The most common web editors are:

• MS Office Online
• Google docs

You can open them directly from your cloud and edit it online. I want to note the joint work, because it is very convenient when you are working in a team on some project, personally experienced it.

Calculations

If you are a developer or just want to do any heavy calculations, then there are VDS / VPS at your service, by renting which you can get literally full access to a part of a remote server. For developers, it is worth noting CI / CD, with which you can transfer all the deployment tasks to the server, freeing up your processor.

Streaming services

Now everyone uses Youtube, Yandex Music, Apple Music, Spotify, etc. You use them on a daily basis and did not even think that before all this there was no and all the music and videos we had downloaded, but now remember, when was the last time you downloaded music or video?

Games

This category also applies to streaming services, but deserves special attention. These services began to develop relatively recently. Google added fuel to the fire, which
most recently introduced Google Stadia. Who, if not Google, with its data centers? Now it's up to them. Either this service will replenish the graveyard of Google, or it will explode and everyone will finally start switching to cloud gaming.

Cost of

I think it remains an open question that you are provided with computing resources, which, of course, are not free. Now we buy a computer, pay for it once a large amount, and in the future we will pay a little, but every month, but you pay exactly for what you want to get from it, only what you use.

For example, you have a 200 GB cloud, but this was not enough for you, you paid a little and got an expansion of the space on the fly. you do not need to go anywhere to shop for another SSD, and the ports are not endless, and if you need to add more space, but there are no more slots, you will have to sell / throw away the old SSD and buy a new size of the past + the right extra space for which it was done. With clouds, this problem goes away.

Devices

We no longer need huge PCs for powerful computers. Enough a small laptop with a small computing power and Linux on board. Wait a minute ... It's worth remembering the Chromebook with Chrome OS on board, which is just made for web apps and cloud computing. I think he is ahead of his time, and with the right actions of Google, he can become the main OS on many laptops.

I also want to note that the thickness and weight of these laptops will be absolutely insignificant, which opens up new possibilities for using computers.

Could Tim Berners-Lee assume that his brainchild would change the world forever?