Can You Go Twenty-Four Hours Without the Cloud?

It’s hard to believe that the cloud has come so far that we’re addressing this topic already. Less than a year ago we were busy writing posts introducing the general public to the concept of cloud technologies and cloud storage. Now we’re going to prod your skull on the likelihood of whether or not you can go a full day without tapping into a cloud-computing product. You may be thinking that you clearly can, but we’re willing to bet that it’s not quite as easy as it sounds.

Cloud technology has found its way into almost everything we Internet users do as a digital culture. One of the first questions you should ask yourself, regarding getting off the cloud, is how long you can survive without your smartphone? Almost everything that makes your smartphone run, is thanks in part to the cloud. Do you download apps? If so, guess what? Apps are all digital files that you download from a remote server. Thus, they are stored in the cloud. So, if you’re cutting the cloud from your life for a day, you gotta cut your smartphone apps too.

How about streaming music? Do you stream music from Pandora, Spotify, or anywhere else? If so, you’ll have to quit that for a day too. The music you’re streaming is being stored on a virtual server, making it available to you through virtual storage and streaming.

Next up you’ll have to spend a day without your streaming movies, TV shows, and on-demand features on your television. All of these digital assets are completely reliant on virtualization.  Without virtual storage, Netflix would have nowhere to store their database of movie files, to shoot them directly to your living room, phone, and PC.

Have you grown accustomed to driving with your GPS? If so, you better be prepared to unfold an old-fashioned map. GPS technology is fully integrated with the cloud, and the pinpoint location technology is only half the story. All the data in a GPS regarding road names, addresses, and detours is all part of a real-time updated cloud library.

If you remove virtualization from your life for just a single day, you’ll have to spend that day without your smartphone capabilities, your streamed music, your on-demand movies and television, and you’ll have to teach yourself how to get around town all over again.

Now, we’re not saying this is impossible. Clearly, there’s going to be a time (hopefully) in all our lives where we can “get away from it all” and find ourselves camping next to a lake with no cellphone signal, while reading a good book by the campfire. So, yes, there is probably going to be a day where you will avoid using the cloud. Just good luck getting to a remote location without your GPS and smartphone!