How do you use the cloud?

[KungFooBob]

I did 10 years on the same Ind Est.

[Mussels]

My company got rid of on prem servers years ago, I use Azure and S3 for all sorts. On demand, available in seconds and more reliable. Can be very expensive though.
A cloud is a squiggle on a technical drawing for a part that you don't care to know the details of, as soon as you know the details it is no longer a cloud.
Same as AI is a (marketing) concept, as soon as your AI project is finished and known then it is no longer AI.

[mangocrazy]

It certainly simplifies technical drawings. No fiddly and liable to change circuit numbers or IP addresses, just a drawing of a little fluffy cloud. Managers love it. It's the ultimate abdication of responsibility, really.

[KungFooBob]

I went to Amazon for them to tell me about their cloud offerings.

I learnt two things.

1. Amazon cloud offerings... if it's called Amazon xxxx then it's an original Amazon 'spare capacity' resold service, if it starts AWS xxx then it's designed to be sold as a cloud service.

2. They have unisex toilets, like in Ally McBeal, but without the dancing baby.

[mangocrazy]

2. They have unisex toilets, like in Ally McBeal, but without the dancing baby.

Did they time how long you spent in them?

[KungFooBob]

No, but they gave me a 'free' pair of fake Chinese ipods in the goody bag for turning up.

[mangocrazy]

No, but they gave me a 'free' pair of fake Chinese ipods in the goody bag for turning up.

Classy.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

My company got rid of on prem servers years ago, I use Azure and S3 for all sorts. On demand, available in seconds and more reliable. Can be very expensive though.
A cloud is a squiggle on a technical drawing for a part that you don't care to know the details of, as soon as you know the details it is no longer a cloud.
Same as AI is a (marketing) concept, as soon as your AI project is finished and known then it is no longer AI.

If Azure is more reliable than your on prem servers, it says a lot about the quality of your server support team.

[Trinity765]

I manage a global cloud based telephone platform so I'd be out of a job Without it we could not have sent our customer service agents home to work during the pandemic. We use a mix of on prem and hybrid servers however in some countries, we can't use VOIP to send calls in and out of the country so it gets a bit complicated. My knowledge is not so much about the networking but the client.

Edit: It runs on AWS.

[Mussels]

My company got rid of on prem servers years ago, I use Azure and S3 for all sorts. On demand, available in seconds and more reliable. Can be very expensive though.
A cloud is a squiggle on a technical drawing for a part that you don't care to know the details of, as soon as you know the details it is no longer a cloud.
Same as AI is a (marketing) concept, as soon as your AI project is finished and known then it is no longer AI.

If Azure is more reliable than your on prem servers, it says a lot about the quality of your server support team.

It's not just the servers that can fail, power cuts and internet problems happen at the office more often than Azure outages.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

One of our business units has swapped an Avaya telephone system for a Gamma cloud based system, they're a smallish office and it saves them a load of money on maintenance, they get the functionality of a big telephone switch without the cost, the only downside is that if they lose connectivity to Gamma they have no telephone switch, but for them that isn't a problem.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

My company got rid of on prem servers years ago, I use Azure and S3 for all sorts. On demand, available in seconds and more reliable. Can be very expensive though.
A cloud is a squiggle on a technical drawing for a part that you don't care to know the details of, as soon as you know the details it is no longer a cloud.
Same as AI is a (marketing) concept, as soon as your AI project is finished and known then it is no longer AI.

If Azure is more reliable than your on prem servers, it says a lot about the quality of your server support team.

It's not just the servers that can fail, power cuts and internet problems happen at the office more often than Azure outages.

I suppose it depends on how the business works, we're an industrial site and our servers control that operation, so if the site loses connectivity to the servers it stops, if your business depends on customers connecting to your servers then it makes sense for them to be cloud based.

[demographic]

A few emails and a few photos.
I never ever back my phone upto the cloud.
That has sometimes bit me on the arse slightly but its a risk I'm willing to take.

[Felix]

I will probably be dead in 20 years or even less so not really giving a shit how much or what i use.

[Yorick]

I'm hardly an IT idiot, but never seen the need to use it.
I like to remain in control.

[Tricky]

I'm hardly an IT idiot, but never seen the need to use it.
I like to remain in control.

I'm ignoring your first statement, but on the second, , well, you may not see the need, but you almost certainly do use it, unless you are very unusual and never use email (unless of course you host your own POP server) and/or never use Google Maps, Translate, etc etc?

P.S. for everyone else except @Yorick - I may need to be quoted on this for him to see it, as I am, or certainly have been stated as being in a (not very exclusive ) group

[Rockburner]

I'm hardly an IT idiot, but never seen the need to use it.
I like to remain in control.

I'm ignoring your first statement, but on the second, , well, you may not see the need, but you almost certainly do use it, unless you are very unusual and never use email (unless of course you host your own POP server) and/or never use Google Maps, Translate, etc etc?

P.S. for everyone else except @Yorick - I may need to be quoted on this for him to see it, as I am, or certainly have been stated as being in a (not very exclusive ) group

Since you asked.



I use "the cloud" to what is probably an average amount these days. (Not least this very forum).
Work uses AWS and (i think) a couple of DO "droplets", mainly because we're a charitable organisation and it's cheaper to have the servers etc run by someone else than actually having a well paid sys admin and our own hardware.

[Slenver]

For me it's an integral part of modern life. When I hear people complain that they've lost their phone and therefore also lost their photos/contacts etc I'm genuinely mystified. Why would you store that stuff on a phone? Just seems an odd thing to do and is a huge pain in the arse as well as obvious risk.

As others have pointed out, 'the cloud' isn't just files and photos but so many other things like email, calendars etc... but for the purposes of thinking of it as wilfully putting files on there, I have about 30Gb of stuff on Google Drive as my main daily file storage, 5000+ photos/videos on iCloud, a few bits and pieces on Dropbox that I use for sharing things with others and then a few bits of Apple-based app stuff, like notes and reminders etc. Plus loads of other 3rd party app-based services like Miro, Trello etc etc.

I also have a cloud-based backup service which backs up important files from my primary external drive, which is currently just under 3Tb.

[dern]

All my phone numbers, photos, emails, everything is all in the cloud. If any phone or laptop dies I just fix it or get another, log in and it's all there again. Doing anything else these days is crazy. I don't subscribe to all the paranoia. The only possibility of your data being used is to show to adverts you're more likely to buy stuff from. Encrypt your data if you're bothered by that.

We use AWS at work and I look after three engineering teams writing applications in that environment. It literally is just someone else's servers that you rent instead of using your own.

[Taipan]

All my work stuff is on Azure. My apple stuff I pay 89p for extra storage. Chromebook stuff wherever they put it?