TECH | Get Your Head in the Cloud

Way back in 1997, Jennifer started her marketing consulting gig and her first client was Intel. Yes, a very large and daunting organization. But that wasn’t the intimidating part. The project was to manage a huge press event in NYC to launch a very obscure concept: the NetPC.

Now this is way before “the cloud” was ubiquitous, but the NetPC was Intel’s answer to contest the concept of the cloud. You see, back in that day, the cloud was not Intel’s friend. Anything that took processing power away from the PC was threatening to the company. Today the cloud is Intel’s friend. It’s evolved into a fixture in all of our lives, whether or not you realize it or understand it, it’s there, hovering over all of us.

So, WTF is the cloud? Basically, it’s a bunch of networked servers that contain bucket loads of data. Our data. [Side Note: this is why Intel now loves the cloud. Its business model is now more focused on servers than PCs, and here’s why. Think of all the data out there. You need tons of space to store it and lots of server processing power to move it around. That’s a hell of a lot of server processors that Intel can sell.]

Now back to you and your data in the cloud. Think of all the things you do during the day – post on Facebook, pin a picture on Pinterest, upload and download files from Dropbox or your Google Drive, listen to your favorite playlist on Spotify, stream Gilmore Girls on Netflix, or follow a recipe on Kitchn – well all of this data has to be stored and processed somewhere. And it is – in one of the millions data center with thousands of servers somewhere in the world. There are 3 million right here in the United States (see why Intel now loves the cloud?). And to get an idea of just how vast the cloud is, here is an infographic that puts it all in perspective.

Still confused? We think it’s the term that throws us off because it doesn’t sound like a tangible object. Here are some informative articles that can help you better understand the cloud and how it affects you everyday. Oh, and when you click the links, your interacting with the cloud.

The Beginner’s Guide to the Cloud, Mashable

Too Embarrassed to Ask: What Is 'The Cloud' and How Does It Work?, Recode

Introduction to Cloud Computing, Eli the Computer Guy

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