“Today is the day that will bring us one step closer to the death of the cloud,” David W. Martin writes for Cult of Mac. “That crucial new part of the internet that is gaining popularity due to the likes of Hulu, Netflix, MobileMe, DropBox, Crashplan, etc. is about to get another blow — AT&T on Monday started restricting the amount of data its millions of broadband customers are able to use in a month. Data is now restricted to as little as 150GB a month.”
“That isn’t good news — users should an uproar over the whole thing,” Martin writes. “It means that a large number of people using broadband in the U.S. will be severely limited in what they can do online. They might risk extra charges or even total loss of their broadband access.”
Martin writes, “This comes as Apple is rumored to be on the verge of introducing a more Cloud-based model of computing for millions of customers… Unfortunately, the sad fact is that as we all look to the cloud for more services, the circumstances are starting to get grim. I predict that many more of us will hit the ceiling, preventing us from using the internet as we would like too. And that my friends, is what will ultimately kill the cloud.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “M Faulkenberry” for the heads up.]
@tower
You can only expand a networks capacity so much? Care to expound? Kinda like when att boosted their cell antenna strength but failed to upgrade their backhaul? Lol.
I designed low latency networks for proximity black box trading in the US and on to international exchanges until I cashed out my partnership and retired at 31. So.. I’m pretty savvy on what is needed and what is going on. So what are your qualifications? You come off as a local network tech for a public school in the way you describe networks.
It’s funny because you understood my example, but ran the wrong way with it.. Kind of like everything you are saying right now. It is SCARY in how you perceive the way ISPs should deliver services going forward. I realize you aren’t going to ever figure this out, and god knows why you are such an att apologist. But I am pretty sure, and the reason. I even bothered with you is the hope people see this conversation and how it highlights the problems of the lack of understanding of bandwidth provides telcos the ability to fleece customers, stagnate capital expenditures to boost profits, and leverage their networks to extort profits from commercial customers based on their user traffic.
fir shits and giggles.. Let’s tackle a couple of technical hurdles you mentioned.
You can only upgrade so much- that’s true when you start talking about the lack of physical premesis to expand. As far as putting in long haul lines.. You can do that until you run out of physical space, not like there is some technical ceiling they are in danger of hitting. As if a network can only expand to a certain capacity due to physics.. Hehe. You can add more routers and lines. Other than oceanic cables which require immense resources.. Att has plenty of room to expand, and they technically can expand a lot more.
Data cap is a way of maintaining useable capacity- the only way to ensure useable bandwidth on a shared line is by limiting users thru put. Show me a company that puts data caps in to ensure their VoIP traffic gets thru. They dont. No company outside of an ISP would do that. I can gaurs tee att doesn’t put data caps on their internal network. A realistic way to gaurantee service is to limit the amount of data a user can Rx/Tx. So instead of 20Mbs… At high peak times knock it to 1 or so Mbs, for example. A data cap means that their lines can still be saturated because IF power users and other users all are transmitting and receiving at a peak time.. It will still get bogged down.
The problem is “nodes” get saturated due to power users- by nodes I think you mean a regional backbone network- not the long haul. A node is a device… So you can even say a router is beyond capacity. But the ISPs frame it as their network capacity which could be network devices and data lines. Who fucking knows? But i digress. Right there is fucked because for everyone to be affected in a way they need to “cap” everyone it suggests a total network saturation. Otherwise, to be fair- shouldn’t they concentrate on the areas of their network that are affected with these data caps? Surely, some regions have more users than others. But of course, they set a data cap anyone can hit with absolutely normal usage for everyone!
Why should our national IT infrastructure look any different than our physical infrastructure? We have an aging power grid, bridges rated as deficient and ready for collapse, 70 year old water pipes in major metropolitan areas. The IT stuff just blends in with everything else.
When cloud computing is fully erected you will not have to traverse so many ISPs to get your datA. And it “should” increase your speed with loadbalancing data strategically across the US.
This game is rigged in favor of the telcos and cable operators.
With a system like, say, AT&T U-Verse, their set-top video traffic will be exempt from data cap, while competing services like NetFlix and iTunes and Hulu will be subject to the data caps. AT&T will only count their competitor’s traffic in your monthly allocation, and artificially drive up the cost of using the competing service. AT&T wants to discourage consumers from using any other video source but AT&T.
It violates the main goal of network neutrality, ensuring fair competition.
If you are paying for a certain amount of bandwidth and ATT excludes the video they offer from the overall amount being charged, how is that bad? Would you rather the video side count towards your total?
Also, have you ever known anyone who had U-Verse? One problem is that if you are watching a hi-def movie in the living room, and your daughter is watching a standard def show in her room and then your son starts a huge download on his computer, it can freeze up your movie. (this was explained to me by a disgruntled customer, because I thought U-Verse would be the best thing to have for a family).
Having everything delivered IP has its disadvantages.
And BTW, if you are worried about competition, just get internet from ATT and video from satellite.
Voila!