THE CLOUD

What is the Cloud? It is no longer just those white poofy images in the sky. It is probably the best thing America has offered to the world and we need to thank Amazon for all the money and innovation that company has put into its success. They call the storage of our data on the internet The Cloud. We see a lot of advertisements everywhere for The Cloud that tries to explain just a little of what it is but we don’t really care because it is working for us while we don’t even know it. The Cloud just seems to happen. Humans tend to take for granted important stuff as long as it is always there and available. Like toilet paper. We panic once it isn’t there. Sigh!

In the beginning we all kept our own stuff on our individual computers. Then when our personal computers died we all felt that we lost all our saved stuff that was hidden somewhere on a hard drive and who is going to take the device apart to find it? Too much trouble. Just start all over. Well, that just isn’t acceptable. We could keep our black speckled hand written notebooks forever. Why not all that stuff we saved on our computer? Now in the new world of THE CLOUD your computer files don’t need to be limited to just your computer. Now all your files can be stored on the internet. All your saved stuff are being stored in huge buildings filled with other computers storing all your stuff in their files. You don’t even know that anything you save is being instantly sent to this Cloud for storage. Now if you lose your computer or if it breaks, you can access your data from any computer.

The system is so successful and safe that governments are considering banning computers being on planes for security just in case you want to detonate a bomb or something from your computer on board a flight. Besides, you don’t really want to carry your computer everywhere anymore. Apple’s I Cloud service will save whatever you did on your computer right to your Apple phone like newly saved cropped pictures. Your phone is not directly connected to your computer. No wires needed to connect them. Now you have THE CLOUD connecting your stuff to other places that can show you your stuff. Sigh!

So, in a second your cropped picture you worked on your computer was sent to a data center that forwarded it to your phone while you burped in your EZ chair. We get to use The Cloud and we don’t even know we are using it.  The Cloud is a service that all companies are using in every industry. Thank Amazon Web Services because it is now the biggest Cloud servicing company in the WORLD. So big that it is bigger than the  next 14 competitors combined.

Now even the smallest to the largest companies can have The Cloud managing all their computers. The data centers have so much security it looks like the beginning of that old TV show called Get Smart where there were many secure doors just to enter the place. To enter the places, start with a retinal scanner that can even detect if your eyeball is alive or not so don’t even try a Weekend At Bernie’s to get in. Go watch the stupid movie where the idiots are dragging around this dead guy pretending he is still alive   to people. Then there are a series of doors that won’t open till the last door behind you locks. This goes  on for 9 security checks.

Inside there are many wracks of powerful computers. In one room there are about 3 million websites running at any moment in time. Every site and APP you’ve ever heard of is in THE CLOUD including giants like Facebook, NETFLIX, TWITTER, UBER, Airbnb, The New York Times and other news outlets live in data centers saving all their stuff too. If there is a power failure the places are backed up by giant generators. If an idiot decides to bomb a center all the data is stored in other centers for safety and security.

In Loudoun County, Virginia one of America’s massive data centers is located. 70% of the WORLD’s data goes through this one data center. This place holds the largest concentration   of data in the world.  It encompasses 10 million square feet in 70 enormous buildings. THE CLOUD offers speed, security, flexibility and savings to the world’s businesses. The main flaw of THE CLOUD is that it uses a lot of power. If you added up all the electricity it uses, it would be the 5^th largest   power using country in the world. So, all those stupid cat videos you send to your friends on social media and all Trump’s stupid tweets use up a lot of energy. Another flaw is the secrecy. We don’t really know what Amazon, Google or Facebook does with our data. We sign off half of our rights to the data when we sign on to use their services. Thank goodness they are reputable companies.

THE CLOUD is here to stay. Amazon Web Services is on track to make $16 billion dollars besides everything else Amazon is successful at. There are 7 new massive data centers under new construction now and Amazon has plenty of new customers. Be thankful for our American Amazon.