Midterm Keyword Project
Long gone are the days of floppy disks, flash drives, and CDs. Digital storage is no longer defined by its materiality, but has transcended the limitations of physical space and now exists as a virtual hub accessible anywhere and everywhere. This hub, or server-based online data storage, is known as the “cloud.” Examples of cloud services are applications like Apple iCloud and Dropbox. Extending beyond data storage, cloud computing refers to the delivery of on-demand computing services. The cloud enables users to access data, like files and applications, from almost any device, and cloud computing services, like Amazon Web Services (AWS), allow users to maintain servers and offer compute power and content delivery.
There are three main service models of cloud computing: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). SaaS, the most familiar service model, allows users to access applications hosted on cloud servers from over the internet, without having to install them on their own device (ex: MailChimp). PaaS allows users to access tools needed to build their own applications (ex: Microsoft Azure), whereas with IaaS, users are able to use servers and storage specifically provided by the cloud, which are then used for personal applications (ex: OpenStack).
It was during the early 2000s that cloud emerged as a term to refer to online data centers, although according to Zdnet, the “concept of computing-as-a-service has been around for much, much longer — as far back as the 1960s, when computer bureaus would allow companies to rent time on a mainframe, rather than have to buy one themselves.” The term is now immersed in modern culture, although one may be confused about how and why a term that refers to a meteorological phenomenon could come to have a completely separate, technological definition. Zdnet explains that it began as a slang term in the tech industry because many “technical diagrams often represented the servers and networking infrastructure that make up the internet as a cloud.” As time went on, they began referring to computing processes as “the cloud.”
However, others believe that more figurative elements went into the formation of the term. One such idea is that much like real clouds, with a digital cloud, the location of the service and the details of its functionality are mainly irrelevant to the user. We typically don’t consciously think about clouds. But despite that fact, they are always there. It is with this in mind that the cloud metaphor becomes meaningful to the technological term: We store our data and tend to forget about it, but all we have to do is look and we’ll find it. Yet, in Benjamin Peter’s “Digital Keywords,” he explains that deliberate discursive work went into developing the term that highlights positive aspects while obscuring negative aspects, which we will discuss later.
Regardless of the etymological origins of the cloud, companies have been making the switch to cloud computing due to its ease and simplicity, not to mention its affordability. A company using cloud computing doesn’t have to worry about updating and maintaining their own servers. Cloud computing is especially significant to small businesses, who are unable to afford the high IT costs of developing their own servers. AWS is a good example of cloud computing and its importance to business, as major companies like Netflix rely on it to provide the entirety of its cloud services, not to mention that thanks to cloud computing many workplaces are becoming BYOD (bring your own device), also cutting down on overhead costs. The cloud isn’t only relevant to companies and businesses but has transformed the everyday life of the average person. Every smartphone is equipped with cloud storage, making it extremely easy for people to store an insane amount of data and access it from a variety of different devices.
Noting all of the positives of cloud computing, it seems like its existence presents a win-win situation for the user and provider, yet the emergence and widespread use of the cloud has presented concerns regarding privacy, access, and information. There are many cons to cloud computing, like vulnerability to attack and threats to security and private data, as well as the commodification of information and society’s growing dependence on technology and the implications of such. While it is convenient to be able to store all of your data in one digital location — and be able to retrieve it from other devices no matter where you are — what we do not think about is how we are entrusting third-party companies and providers to look after our data, leaving us without any control over who may be able to access it and what they will do with the information.
This heightens the risk of cyberattacks since volumes of data are stored by all types of users on the same cloud system. Not only that, but the use of cloud-based applications can leave our personal information susceptible to commodification. As explained in Naughton’s “The new surveillance capitalism,” major companies are profiting off of our personal data: “[corporations] have access to more information than would be found in a run-of-the-mill M15 file; the ease with which they can pry into the lives of others would make them the envy of the Stasi. The two surveillance corporates use this information to run vast, high-speed, computerized marketplaces.”
Big data has become one of the most prominent technological phenomena and the commodification of information is not only intrusive, but highlights an even bigger issue related to the problematics of technological innovation. Cloud computing has made business a whole lot easier, but has also presented grave concerns to our privacy and fueled issues related to access and the workforce. While cloud computing is beneficial to small businesses, in developing economies there are still a whole host of challenges (i.e. lack of infrastructure and poor internet coverage) that make cloud computing a distant — and disappointing — reality. It is the people on the margins of society that are further marginalized, exploited, and excluded after great technological innovation. Not only that, but our reliance on technology is shifting our society in ways that are far from beneficial.
Aside from taking away jobs, technological advancement causes us to make judgments and connections about ourselves. Crawford, Lingel, and Karppi explain in their article on metrics how over time, we have come to rely on technology to help us define and understand ourselves. Reliance on cloud computing technology has shifted how we define and understand business, privacy, and data. We are lowering our defenses against relinquishing private data at alarming rates, and our conception of what exactly is private differs vastly from years ago. Websites and providers have access to information like our birthdate, full name, credit card information, bank statements, etc. and many times we offer this information willingly and blindly as if they weren’t private information at all.
Referring back to Peters and the discursive work that goes into “cloud” as we know it today, the word is associated with a variety of religious and theoretical contexts, many of which work to contribute to our association of clouds with “airy, theoretical, insubstantial things, whether gods or ‘ideas’.” (56) Images of angels languishing in the clouds and childhood memories of finding animals or other figures in them further contribute to our positive, harmless conception of clouds. In naming these digital storage units the “cloud,” big tech companies mislead consumers into focusing on the “peaceful, inconsequential parts of the tradition of cloud meanings while suppressing the rest,” (61) making us feel safe in relinquishing our personal data when it is, in fact, riskier than we seem to understand.
When we take the time to think critically about the discursive work around the word cloud, Peters highlights that there are many negative meanings associated with the word that we seem to neglect, much like how we neglect the negative consequences that can result from using cloud computing services: “For another, the notion of ‘the cloud’ downplays the risk of giving up control over our data. We might think about the term cloud-attack from World War I (a barrage of poisonous gas) or cloudburst from meteorology to counter the blithe IT ideology of the cloud.” (61)
Branding also ties into the discursive work that goes into the understanding of the cloud. Our familiarity with these major companies (i.e. Amazon, Google, Apple), and the messages we send by using their products contribute to the positive feelings associated with the cloud. Take for instance Apple’s iCloud. Almost everyone owns an iPhone, making them and their technology familiar to us.
As regular consumers, we entrust them to protect our data and preserve our privacy, much like we entrust them to continue providing us products. Regardless of if they do it or not, we believe it to be so based on our prior interactions and already established beliefs about the brand. Not only that, but people are more susceptible to use cloud services due to them being inherent aspects of the device. We learned that identity is established through the use of consumer goods, and for many of us, our identities are tied to the types of products we use (think of the Android user vs iPhone user debate). Having an iPhone communicates that you are (typically) wealthy and modern, and many of us are willing to trade threats to our security and privacy for the preservation of that identity.
While cloud computing has greatly transformed our society within business and personal contexts, much like with all technological advancement, there are drawbacks to this change. The question is what, if anything, can we do about these drawbacks before it’s too late? Just as how we were too swept away by the ease, newness, and convenience of the internet in its prime to see how it would eventually turn into a commercial breeding ground through the commodification of data and information, will we demand more transparency and control with cloud computing — or succumb to the same fate? The implications can become far too dangerous if we allow cloud computing to expand without regulation.
Notes
Angeles, Sara. “8 Reasons to Fear Cloud Computing.” Business News Daily, Dec. 2015, www.businessnewsdaily.com/5215-dangers-cloud-computing.html.
Larkin, Andrew. “Disadvantages of Cloud Computing — Cloud Academy Blog.” Cloud Academy, Cloud Academy, 7 Aug. 2019, cloudacademy.com/blog/disadvantages-of-cloud-computing/.
“What Is the Cloud? | Cloud Definition.” Cloudflare. www.cloudflare.com/learning/cloud/what-is-the-cloud/.
Ranger, Steve. “What Is Cloud Computing? Everything You Need to Know about the Cloud, Explained.” ZDNet, ZDNet, 1 July 2019, www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-cloud-computing-everything-you-need-to-know-from-public-and-private-cloud-to-software-as-a/.
Boland, Stephanie. “The New Surveillance Capitalism.” Prospect Magazine The New Surveillance Capitalism Comments, 26 Jan. 2018, www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/how-the-internet-controls-you.
Peters, Benjamin, and John Durham Peters. Digital Keywords: a Vocabulary of Information Society and Culture. Princeton University Press, 2016.
Mujinga, M., & Chipangura, B. (2011). Cloud computing concerns in developing economies. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4225/75/57b5486bcd8c8
Marwick, Alice. “Online Identity.” Blackwell. 2013
