The Cloud Ate My Homework - To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World - page 7

needs, provided and withdrawn on demand, and paid through measured
service billing. The chapter describes the range of cloud computing forms
from the simple provision of an infrastructure, such as a data storage
center, to services that include applications, software, and analytics that
add value to data. It also considers types of cloud computing from public
clouds that are available to all paying customers, a rather limited meaning
of the term “public,” to private clouds that sell storage and services only
to a select set of customers who prefer their data gated and secure, and
hybrid clouds that offer combinations of the two.
The chapter examines the leading cloud companies, including the
well-known irms that grew up in the Internet era, helped to create social
media, and are now serving companies and individuals in the cloud.
Amazon is arguably the leading cloud-computing provider, but the list
of familiar names also includes Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Facebook.
In addition, legacy irms such as IBM, Oracle, and Cisco are trying to
make the transition to the cloud after years of success servicing corporate
and government IT departments. Then there are the companies born in
cloud, such as Rackspace, Salesforce, and VMware, that provide general
and specialized cloud-computing and big-data services. Chapter 2 cov-
ers the battles among key competitors and the growing concentration of
power at the top of the industry. Private irms dominate the cloud, but
the U.S. government is helping to shape its expansion primarily through
partnerships with leading companies, mainly in the military and intel-
ligence sectors but also in education, including the humanities. This is
leading some to wonder about the rise of a military information complex
that promotes the power of a handful of companies and the expansion
of the surveillance state, best typiied by the National Security Agency.
The U.S. cloud industry is powerful, but it is increasingly challenged by
foreign competitors—especially China, which is constructing entire cloud
cities to close the gap with the United States.
There is a massive, worldwide movement to promote cloud comput-
ing, and Chapter 3 examines its many forms. The campaign includes
advertising, blogs, the reports of corporate research and consulting
irms, international economic-policy organizations, lobbying campaigns,
conferences, and trade fairs. Having begun in the banality of a technical
diagram and in the hazy visions of computer pioneers, the image of the
cloud has taken on a richer aesthetic in the hands of today's Mad Men,