Online services simplify our life, but what are we giving away? What are the pros and cons?

It’s been a long time since we started talking about Cloud Computing, by now shortened to Cloud. The first discussions were contrasting about this technology being exclusively positive. Critics argued that the more Cloud would catch on, the more we would give away our data to have them available anywhere and anytime. Then we have the streaming services for music and cinema. Where all these things are taking us?

The cloud

Storing our data on a Cloud service has some clear pros:

  • We don’t have to care about the space required by our files. Especially photos and videos need a lot of space from hundreds of megabytes to several gigabytes, because the quality of media files is constantly increasing.
  • It’s safer because our files are handled by companies that store data on their servers and make many backups to prevent data loss. Besides, files saved on servers are more protected from physical damage than on a standard hard disk.
  • Costs are lower compared to a higher and higher requirement of space, keeping in mind that for a few gigabytes, storing is often free.
  • We have data centralization, so we can use our data everywhere and from different devices, without having to always bring a hard disk with us to have your files available.

There are also some cons you shouldn’t underestimate:

  • We can’t access our data if we haven’t an internet connection.
  • Although servers are safer than hard disks, they aren’t free from hacker attacks that can steal our data.
  • When you seal a contract with a company that handles your files, you do it at their conditions which very often can change in time.
  • Costs are affordable, compared to buying new hardware, but in the long run, they couldn’t be so worthwhile. Especially if the amount of data remains below a certain threshold whereby a hard disk is still cheaper.
  • Besides, you should consider that when you subscribe to a cloud service plan if you can afford the costs. Because when you suspend the subscription your data will be deleted unless you save them in time on a mass storage device. So, it’s thought-provoking that we need a hard disk anyway to save our data.

Applications

However, Cloud is not limited to storing data, more and more applications can run on simple web pages. In addition, some years ago companies started the first monthly subscription plans for applications, even though in most cases, they still run on desktop PCs but you can save your project files on the cloud.

Given this trend, some people are afraid that when all the applications can run exclusively on the web, we’ll have to subscribe to a plan for every application we use, so in the long run, this will be very expansive. Some people contest that you’ll always have an updated application to the last version. However, lots of people use some applications only on and off, so a subscription plan is not always affordable. For them, it’s better to pay once and have always the application available on their PCs.

Streaming

Subsequently, this phenomenon took hold in the streaming services: for music and videos. By now music is a monthly subscription plan on services like Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube Music, Amazon Music, etc… These services are convenient because you can have access to any kind of song from every artist, but are not the best solution for the people who got used to the idea of having an album to collect and preserve.

In the end, even movies joined the world of streaming with services like Netflix for example. Although it could be comfortable to have at your disposal any kind of movie, directly in your home with a subscription, which you can access from any device; even in this case, you have to give up having your collection of movies to watch when you want, unless you have a subscription. And above all, when you buy a DVD, you pay once.

Our friends used to enter our room and see who we are, looking at the CDs, and cassettes we exhibited on the shelves. So they figured out our tastes. And the same was for the movies on VHS or DVD. Now, they probably would see an empty room that doesn’t tell anything about us, and neither gives a hint for a new movie to watch by a glance on the shelf. A new movie to be fond of, or a new album to listen to just for curiosity.

Nobody says that we should give up subscription services, streaming services, or Cloud. The important thing is if we can always choose which to use. Because a subscription it’s not necessarily the best choice for someone. Besides, in doing so we will have to activate thousands of subscriptions for any kind of online service that fewer and fewer people can afford.