Tulips and The Cloud

[Garpal Gumnut]

I am bewildered, perhaps because of being old-fashioned, about the over-abundance of companies on the ASX depending on Cloud and software solutions to make everybody rich and happy. I am no expert on the Cloud but I can recognise a bubble when I see one. I am also familiar with the rise and fall of Tulips as an investment.

I am not saying that storing information in places other than my lock up is not important. However many of the "solutions" touted for the Cloud atm. seem nothing more than a sophisticated lockup with some expensive plumbing and air-con thrown in around some computers whose capacity will be sold to pimply gamers at Harvey Norman in five years time.

I have no doubt that some of these Cloud and associated Software outfits may prosper. There are so many now that demise may be the lot of most.

The technology solutions around Cloud still all seem very clunky to me, and I speak as the relative of a talented computer air con mechanic who developed his own storage information start up and sold out to Amazon over 15 years ago for quite a considerable sum. He also gained a position overseas with that company. Having seen his business from the beginning the "solutions" that he and Amazon had do not seem much more advanced.

Then there is the matter of Amazon, Telstra, Microsoft, Apple or Google and other large companies having their own solutions in our own or other markets.This opinion extends to "software solution's" outfits as well. Space does not allow me to elaborate on this.

In essence I see a big bubble.

Disclaimer : I hate Tulips. I believe them to be the ugliest weed gawd ever made.

gg

 

[SirRumpole]

I object to using the cloud as I don't want my information stored somewhere out of my control.

However that attitude may be somewhat naive considering the reach of the big tech companies.

No use giving them anymore than they already have imo.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

I am bewildered, perhaps because of being old-fashioned ....

I have no doubt that some of these Cloud and associated Software outfits may prosper. There are so many now that demise may be the lot of most.

"Let me choose, for as I am I live upon the rack"

 

[Country Lad]

I object to using the cloud as I don't want my information stored somewhere out of my control.

Don't worry it is quite safe on the server in the Shifty Brothers' garage.

 

[Joe Blow]

I had to edit the thread title to "The Cloud" because it's where we're all going sooner or later. Cloud infrastructure will become cheaper and cheaper and eventually most, if not all data, will end up there.

SMEs will be able to get rid of their on-premises hardware and life will be a lot easier for them.

Don't worry it is quite safe on the server in the Shifty Brothers' garage.

Or Joe Blow's server.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

I had to edit the thread title to "The Cloud" because it's where we're all going sooner or later. Cloud infrastructure will become cheaper and cheaper and eventually most, if not all data, will end up there.

SMEs will be able to get rid of their on-premises hardware and life will be a lot easier for them.

Or Joe Blow's server.

 

[jbocker]

Disclaimer : I hate Tulips. I believe them to be the ugliest weed gawd ever made.

Last time I am going to read your posts out loud in front of my Tulips. Mr Gumnut you have really upset them.

 

[frugal.rock]

In essence I see a big bubble.

In essence, the future of "big data" and the analytics of such, assures me that it's not a big bubble...

Tulips, tall poppies, whatever... tip toe through, if you dare.

 

[qldfrog]

In essence, the future of "big data" and the analytics of such, assures me that it's not a big bubble...

Tulips, tall poppies, whatever... tip toe through, if you dare.

Big data is big and will get bigger, but economy of scale and commoditization means many of the hopefuls will fail imho
And clouds is now a trendy word so you see it used anywhere every where.

 

[frugal.rock]

whose capacity will be sold to pimply gamers at Harvey Norman in five years time.

I have no doubt that some of these Cloud and associated Software outfits may prosper. There are so many now that demise may be the lot of most.

I would expect the demise or takeover of most and expect eventually there will be a small handful of the biggest survivors, which no doubt will get rendered down to a few.
DXN rings a bell of potential demise eventually... or not.
The winners will have to stay nimble.

So you think zit poppers will be buying qubits of storage from Ger' at hardly normal in 5 years?
Hmmmm, quantum computing race is definitely on for young and old.
Will be interested in the results of AXE's qubit testing this year.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

https://hostingtribunal.com/blog/cloud-computing-statistics/#gref

Pros and Cons of Cloud Adoption
Although the cloud computing statistics we’ve seen so far look promising, still…

1. Privacy and security are the two main roadblocks for cloud adoption.
   (Source: Logicmonitor, IDC)
   
   Nearly two-thirds of organizations see security as the biggest challenge for cloud adoption.
   
   Privacy and regulatory issues, along with governance and compliance of cloud services worry more than 60% of enterprises.
   
   One of the less known cloud computing facts is that more than half of organizations lack staff with cloud experience and this constitutes one of the primary challenges for cloud adoption.
   
   
2. Almost half of organizations use encryption or other security safeguards to protect sensitive data in the cloud.
   (Source: Gemalto)
   
   75% of IT experts find managing privacy and data protection in a cloud environment to be more complicated than on premises. With more and more corporate data being stored in the cloud (43% in 2017), this poses a security risk.
   
   Nevertheless, 53% of companies aim to increase their cloud security using various techniques – like multi-factor identification, for example.
   
   Cloud computing statistics show security is one of the main concerns for companies, and it does appear they’ve taken precautions.
   
   
3. Public cloud IaaS workloads will experience 60% fewer security incidents than traditional data centers by 2020.
   (Source: Gartner)
   
   Automation is the key to removing the potential for human error. Cloud migration isn’t a security trade-off. Companies can benefit from the built-in cloud security.
   
   Gartner predicts that through 2022 at least 95% of security failures in the cloud will be caused by the customers.
   
   Being the multi-billion companies that they are, the cloud vendors can create top-notch security and multilayered defense mechanisms. Security is costly and not everyone can afford it.
   
   
4. Cost optimization is the primary reason for 47% of enterprises’ cloud migration.
   (Source: Opsramp, Skyhighnetworks, Directive)
   
   The good thing about the cloud is that it has different products that fit any pocket. Also, you pay only for what you use.
   

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Thank you all for your replies and I am learning. @frugal.rock @qldfrog @Dona Ferentes

Where does "BLOCKCHAIN" come in to all of this in relation to value for a company. Also what is it? I'm more interested in it's worth for start ups rather than a tech answer as I'm running out of Panadol looking in to these tech startups.

gg

 

[frugal.rock]

Where does "BLOCKCHAIN" come in to all of this in relation to value for a company.

Good question. My thoughts had led me to think of Blockchain also.
Short answer, dunno.
Maybe take a couple of panadol and research FFG (fatfish group) for me?
All I know is the name and I believe they do blockchain... cheers.
PS, DXN might be good for a bounce after reporting earnings but dyor.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Good question. My thoughts had led me to think of Blockchain also.
Short answer, dunno.
Maybe take a couple of panadol and research FFG (fatfish group) for me?
All I know is the name and I believe they do blockchain... cheers.
PS, DXN might be good for a bounce after reporting earnings but dyor.

This is a worrying turn of events.

People are investing in what they believe to be cattle and could be buying cuddly wuddly dawgs.

gg

 

[qldfrog]

This is a worrying turn of events.

People are investing in what they believe to be cattle and could be buying cuddly wuddly dawgs.

gg

What is blockchain?
A very very basic explanation obviously simplified to death :
a decentralised database whose records have in most of cases no owner and as such can not be corrupted wiped etc and has a full transaction history uncorrupted..so its use in digital currency
Blockchain data does not need to be stored in a cloud, cloud is irrelevant...
Hope it helps.
other IT savvy might see many flaws in that basic explanation, there are...
But in short distributed and integrity preserved data
Another trendy way to get funding if you have a startup.
Imagine :
Qldfrog looking for investors in his
cloud based SAAS AI blockchain market playing system
Instant millionaire...
The worst is that i could actually start that...

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

What is blockchain?
A very very basic explanation obviously simplified to death :
a decentralised database whose records have in most of cases no owner and as such can not be corrupted wiped etc and has a full transaction history uncorrupted..so its use in digital currency
Blockchain data does not need to be stored in a cloud, cloud is irrelevant...
Hope it helps.
other IT savvy might see many flaws in that basic explanation, there are...
But in short distributed and integrity preserved data
Another trendy way to get funding if you have a startup.
Imagine :
Qldfrog looking for investors in his
cloud based SAAS AI blockchain market playing system
Instant millionaire...
The worst is that i could actually start that...

Thanks @qldfrog

Much appreciated.

gg

 

[wayneL]

Further, as I understand it, the record (of your transaction or ownerships etc) resides on several thousand computers concurrently, rather than in the traditional sense where it resides on a single machine.

Therefore, virtually immutable.

 

[qldfrog]

Further, as I understand it, the record (of your transaction or ownerships etc) resides on several thousand computers concurrently, rather than in the traditional sense where it resides on a single machine.

Therefore, virtually immutable.

indeed

 

[Dona Ferentes]

I object to using the cloud as I don't want my information stored somewhere out of my control...

It's not all just about you, rumpy

The need for artificial intelligence (AI) acceleration is widely recognized as of 2020. AI acceleration chipsets have become a standard feature requirement for device manufacturers within the enterprise (data center) and edge markets. As a result, the volume and revenue of AI chipsets have increased drastically in the last two years. NVIDIA’s latest A100 offers petaOPS of compute performance under certain compute conditions, marking a tremendous jump from the petaOPS server DGX-1 introduced just two short years ago..

prominent chip companies, such as Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm, have invested heavily in AI. Cloud companies have started rolling out graphics processing units (GPUs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), giving developers a choice for AI acceleration.

Omdia forecasts that global revenue for DL chipsets will increase from $11.4bn in 2019 to $71.2bn by 2025.
https://tractica.omdia.com/research/deep-learning-chipsets/

though there is a view that issues with Cloud will see (cutting edge) developments elsewhere, such as in-device GPUs

But there’s a catch. Using offsite data centers for data processing definitely works for some uses. But it creates a critical problem for other applications: latency. Latency is a fancy word for the time lag between processing data and a response.
It can be inconvenient, but it can also be a matter of major consequence… Drones, self-driving cars, industrial robots, remote medical procedures—all these devices rely on computer vision that takes in massive amounts of data that must be processed lightning-quick, with the lowest latency.

You can't achieve that if the device sends data to the cloud for processing and waits for the results. It just takes too long.

It might take less than one second longer to use the cloud. But that can be the difference between an autonomous vehicle avoiding a collision or a fatal accident...

To shrink latency to the smallest possible fraction of a second, networks are being built that move AI-driven processing off the cloud… and even off the internet.
Moving the data processing and storage as close as possible to the device—or even on the device itself—will radically improve response times and reduce latency.
This new configuration where computation is done at the edge of the network—where it is closer to the end user—is called edge computing.
We’ve seen the difference described as cloud computing being about big data, while edge computing is about instant data.

 

[qldfrog]

for anyone interested:

The camera and chipset already does within the chip things like distance computation and object recognition via neural network.
So the computer /software behind does not have to process that first stage..Far far from the cloud, the chip attached to the lens does that for you(aka the programmer)
Do you know that many optical mouses you use daily are actually using a basic archaic neural network to determine the movement of the mouse based on the reflection of the led against the desk surface?
All that to say cloud is not that sophisticated and i am somewhat reluctant to see it branded on everything and nothing.
It has its use, but is not a holy grail.