Cloud Computing is a good or bad idea

[#1]

Going back to the Early 90's at work we had a form of Cloud Computing via our Intranet (As opposed to internet).  All  the used programs were stored on a central machine, this made upgrading to the latest version easy for the IT lads.
On the not too infrequent occasions when the central server, or link was down, there used to be uproaqr from around the office, we cant work.
Now various "Do Gooders" are saying - lets all get on the cloud.  From my understanding this is similar to what I was using all those years ago, but even more so, your Data is also stored on some far away 'cloud'.  Lets forget all those poor people with slow internet, not to wory every one has at least 8 M.
Yesterday, 20th  a lot of people to the East of London completely lost Internet at 14:30 when the Ilford Node went down.  How many businesses could not do any work because of God sitting on their cloud.
Mine - I could not authenticate until 11:00 today ##
CLOUD no thank you, I will keep mine on a laptop if I have to move around - Not really woried though OAP

[#2]

I use many server based applications in my work supporting other server based applications.
While the idea of outsourcing the worries of server processing capcity, application maintainance and of course network utilisation and security  sounds great in theory it only really works if the company you are outsourcing to also control the link back to your premises which means that it has to be a telco really and in the UK the only company that could really do this is BT as the likes of Cable and Wireless have to co-locate their equipment in BT exchange facilities and have to request access to their own equipment to fix problems!
Google and MS would like to do this but again they would be in the same boat.
Other snag is, the more popular your services become the more expensive it becomes to run (network bandwidth, servers and switchgear and of course data centres (DCs) )
I can imagine that a few people at PN were frustrated by the Ilford ATM node failure because it was beyond their control.
You may find the following site of interest http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/
There is quite a lot of info about Google and MS' DC building program
I doubt that cloud computing will take off in a big way, its just a fad.

[#3]

MS are due to announce a new O/S any day now.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-039-s-Cloud-Operating-System-50353.shtml
http://news.cnet.com/Microsofts-Cloud-OS-takes-shape/2100-1007_3-6196152.html
As you say its a mainframe with a new name or a terminal server. From an admin point of view its great I used TS a lot and life is so much simpler walk over to the server install software and 1,000 users have it no fafing about visiting every pc or deploying files.
On TS its very fast and uses low bandwidth but the big snag is if the server/ network goes down its a great break and a excuse to do no work but a pain in the bum.  Its all down to SPOF a single point of failure most firms cant afford to have spare routers, switchs and cable on standby to take over if the main ones go down so for them its a fine line. If you can have fall over with second lines routers etc its not so bad.
Its all Bills plot to take over the world if it happens then it stops Piracy (so they think) and gives them MS or Google control over everything. What sort of storage will they need imagine 4 million users on the cloud each having 4 gig of disk space. The numbers and the power to drive it all are mind blowing.
What is gives them is control of the world they can search all this data for key words and predict the next big toy or gadget and jump on the bandwagon before anyone else knows about it.

[#4]

I predict it'll crash and burn just like NT 6 errr sorry Vista
People won't stand for their PC being dependent on a networking connection and I'm not sure many ISPs will welcome the additional load on their networks, iPlayer will pale in comparison.
Looks like I'll have to look at switching to Linix or ReactOS as my primary OS then as even if a lot of the processing remains local I will not pay a subscription to use my PC

Mind you, the guy now in day to day charge at MS, Ray Ozzie, did create Lotus Notes so it figures that he'd want to do something network centric.
I def want to get out of PC support and into networking as if the masses lap this up (they won't have much choice because system builders will be compelled to install on new systems) then there will be no such thing as desktop support as it'll all be controlled by the massive network management facility at Redmond and so the focus of IT departments will be keeping up the connections and changing the toner in printers.
I hope the ISPs such as PN voice their opposition to this.

[#5]

Remember that monkier of web 2.0? No-one could really say what it was, but no-one would admit that they didn't know; so many companies had their web sites made 'web 2.0 compliant', often by CONsultants who charged $200 an hour. Likewise, Cloud Computing will have those corporates racing out to buy the latest slim PCs and 3G subscriptions, because they think they need it without understanding why they need it.
Back in the day, I remember calling Cloud Computing by a more utilitarian term of server distributed software delivery to diskless computer terminals. As the name suggests, there was a Server running Windows NT (bleeding edge tech at the time), connected via a switch (which had real clicking relays) , to diskless IBM AT PC's (junk even at the time) . On boot up, the PC's would look at the ROM occupying the ROM socket on their network cards, and then go and upload Lotus Symphony. Woo hoo! The truth was the company was too tight to buy 512 copies of Lotus Notes, but a license, a server and no hard drives was (a bit) cheaper. As for Wireless Networking? Back then it was called CB Radio.
Cloud computing arose from a need to save money; which may still be an issue in the developing word but, todays i-toys, have more gigs than you need to load Vista Ulitmate. And with operating system and software prices crashing (in real terms), is there really a need for clouding computing? Yes, uplink to VPN's and Servers, but today's microscopic form factors can do a whole lot more than run a spreadsheet.
I must say that cloud computing does offer the chance of us all having a sexy looking paper thin OLED touchy feely i-device things, but I ask, are cloud devices just contemporary versions of those dumb telnet terminals that some of us here are just old enough to remember using 😉
What goes around comes around?

[#6]

Had those when I started at secondary school with a BNC ring topology so had major issues with packet collision