Someone Else's Computer: A Field Guide to the Cloud
Field Guide · 5 Chapters · It's Just Someone Else's Computer
Incoming transmission
“The cloud” is the most successfully vague piece of marketing in tech history. It sounds weightless, everywhere, and magical. It is, in fact, a warehouse in Virginia full of servers that get very hot and require enormous amounts of electricity. Franklin Green stored the company's entire customer database “in the cloud” without understanding who owned it, who could access it, or what would happen if the company that ran it decided to raise prices by 400%.
Understanding the cloud isn't optional anymore. Your photos, your work files, your company's infrastructure, and increasingly your applications all live there. What you don't understand, you can't protect.
This manual explains what the cloud actually is — physically, architecturally — how the major providers work, what “sync vs backup” means, who can see your data, and what your options are if you want to leave.
5 chapters. No magical thinking.
— Commander Shepard
