Design LLC Cloud Computing

In early 2005 representatives of firm called Design LLC went to The Dalles, Oregon where they entered into quiet negotiations with local officials and completed a transaction for a 30-acre parcel of land on the banks of the Columbia River. On that piece of land, the search giant Google built one of its massive data centers. This was the beginning of the Design LLC fronted Cloud Computing project for Google. Fueled by cheap hydropower and cooled in part by icy river water, this center would fit a huge networked complex of computing power.

Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.com are constructing such centers from the Carolinas to Siberia, they’re also creating a new form of utility. Together these form to create giant computing grids that promise to deliver vast digitized information to scientific labs, companies, and homes now and in the future. This trend heralds a newer, darker phase for the Internet, one where these mega-networks could eventually operate and dominate our lives. Information technology is turning into a commodity, like electricity, oil, corn, and companies may no longer hope to gain a competitive advantage by simply buying up the latest and greatest hardware and software that pops onto the market. As businesses and consumers alike tap into Cloud Computing for software services and while storing vast digital troves on their distant disk drives, they’ll eventually need less and less equipment.

Traditional economists normally applaud such economies of scale and unleashed resources could flow more efficiently to innovations and new businesses, creating a plethora of new jobs and careers. However, a darker side would claim that this same cloud would be able to harvest data from these networked computers to track our behavior and, ultimately, control us.

However, some claim that the benefits far out weight it’s drawbacks. Many scientists, for instance, plan to use these huge cloud computing resources, to sift deep through mountains of data in their hunt for advances in medicine and cleaner forms of energy.

As we prepare for the World Wide Web to turn into the World Wide Cloud, it’s not a bad idea to consider not only it’s innovations and benefits, but also it’s darker side as well.
The Design LLC trip to the Cloud has changed the way we look at Computing forever.