The sky is falling.<\/p>\n
At least according to technologist, Viktor Charypar, who proclaimed<\/a> “the cloud,” as a large-scale approach to computing, is about to nosedive.<\/p>\n To say the least, that\u2019s a surprise. <\/p>\n At this point, it\u2019s safe to call cloud-based computing the dominant paradigm. Those who make their living through that paradigm can be forgiven for dropping their collective monocle, spitting out their collective tea, and having a good old scoff at such scandalous tomfoolery as \u201cthe end of the cloud is coming.\u201d I know I did.<\/p>\n But I kept reading, because it is literally my job to do the reading. And you know something?<\/p>\n Charypar is right.<\/p>\n The reason \u201cend of the cloud\u201d has so many metaphorical monocles floating in cups of tea is that tech in general is running full tilt at cloud-based solutions. More and more companies are moving more and more functionality out of consumer hardware and into corporate owned resources, which those corporations then make available as a service.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to see why. The previous generation of tech had what they figured was an insoluble problem: you can only stuff so much processing power in a plastic rectangle before it keels over or bursts into flames.<\/p>\n The fix was literally out of the box. Take it out, went the wisdom. Move your computing into remote services, big networks of big iron optimized to meet your needs. That moves processing power and economic power in the same direction: away from the user and toward the service provider. In a sense, it was a return to the very, very old days of personal computing, when \u201ccomputer\u201d meant the vast and heaving beast in the basement and users just got terminals, access points where they could play with data owned and operated by someone else. Trust me. I\u2019m writing this on a Chromebook. <\/p>\n As Charypar points out, like any tech solution, the cloud paradigm comes with advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are obvious: thanks to the Chromebook, this article has gone through three formats on two machines, and I never even had to plug anything in.<\/p>\n Disadvantages? The cloud isn\u2019t infinitely scalable. As tech standards rise – SD to HD, 1080 to 4K – we\u2019re forcing bigger data through tighter tubes. That means everything gets slower, dumber, and uglier. Especially with net neutrality under threat<\/a>, that\u2019s a serious possibility in the immediate future.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also insecure. <\/p>\n Old one-liner: freedom of the press is limited to those who own one. The Internet fixed that – then promptly no-backsied us with the streaming paradigm. Now, access to data is limited to those who can store and stream it. How much of your entertainment comes from, say, Netflix, or Spotify, or Steam? Because if those services stop working tomorrow, and they could, whatever you\u2019ve invested in them goes too. If their security fails – not unprecedented<\/a> – you\u2019re the one exposed. They\u2019ve got the data. You\u2019re just paying to play with it.<\/p>\n So, you quite rightly ask, what\u2019s the fix?<\/p>\n BitTorrent. <\/p>\n The soft, splashy clink you just heard was the few remaining metaphorical monocles splashing into caffeinated beverages all over this great country. Someone fetch smelling salts; the entirety of Silicon Valley just got the vapors.<\/p>\n We aren’t advocating that we all grab the digital equivalent of a cutlass and a parrot and return to the scandalous days of piracy<\/a>. But, as Charypar points out, whatever else you might say about peer-to-peer data transfer, and there\u2019s plenty to say, it worked. It\u2019s proven tech. Back in the day, you could grab a whole season of Deadwood in an hour. I mean, so I heard. In Bible study. <\/p>\n More recently, blockchain has repeatedly demonstrated that peer-to-peer tech solutions are widely applicable<\/a> and solve many of the problems<\/a> associated with a cloud-based middleman. <\/p>\n Peer-to-peer solutions like BitTorrent and blockchain are as close to infinitely scalable as technology allows. The processing power grows organically with the network, because the computers on the network are doing the work. Peer-to-peer is secure, too. I\u2019d tell you to ask a cryptocurrency miner, but that\u2019s the point: there\u2019s no way to find one.<\/p>\n Charypar\u2019s argument is that cloud-based computing is approaching its end because it never was an end in itself. It was the first half of the real goal: distributed computing. <\/p>\n Apps built peer-to-peer, sharing data and processing power between users directly, backed with blockchain or other encryption solutions, could represent what the cloud keeps demonstrating it can\u2019t: a safe, stable digital world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (EDITORIAL) There is a theory floating around that the cloud is on the verge of death. Turns out, there’s merit for this line of thought…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337683,"featured_media":12580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[1455,1234,455,1747],"class_list":["post-12577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","tag-blockchain","tag-real-estate-news","tag-tech","tag-the-cloud"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/11\/the-cloud.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12577"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14400,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12577\/revisions\/14400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}