Clarion Content

The Clarion Content has long extolled the virtues of the cloud. A new era of computing has dawned around us. Its benefits when used are myriad. The cloud is a force-multiplier that allows the individual computer user to be much more powerful than the machine, the hardware, in front of them.

There are other benefits to the cloud beyond exponentially increased computing power. One of the big ones is storage. Cloud users reap the benefits. A friend of the Clarion Content's editor works for an international NGO, in the last year his job has taken him to Haiti, Nicauragua, Honduras, Rwanda and Kenya. On a recent return trip after several exhausting weeks of fieldwork, our friend was flying from Nairobi to Amsterdam and on to New York City before returning to Durham. While clearing customs in the Netherlands and making his connection on to the States, he suddenly realized he did not have his laptop. He had left it in the terminal in Nairobi.

Of course, despite the best efforts of airline officials, it never turned up. But because our young friend is a savvy cloud dweller, almost none of his work was lost. His fieldwork data had been backed up on to servers in North Carolina. His pictures had been uploaded, too. His music likewise was co-resident elsewhere. Ditto his email. In sum, almost nothing, other than the machine, the hardware, the laptop itself, was lost.

This is an enormous benefit and a paradigm shift. Ten years ago this was not possible. Now even the independent individual, a non-corporate automaton, can make use of Google Docs, Photobucket/Snapfish/Picasa, Blogger/Wordpress/LiveJournal, Youtube, and virtually any email service, and for free have reliable back-up of any and all work they do. From spreadsheets and documents, to photos and videos, to thoughts and emails, all of one's data can be backed-up outside of one's unreliable little personal box.

Welcome to the cloud, my friends. Paradigm shifted.

And we have even started talking NetApp yet...

Labels: Africa, Pop Culture, technology