As the present generation has embraced social networks in commercial and personal use, the role of cloud computing in social networking is also commendable. Social networks have rapidly changed the way people interact and communicate in the virtual world. It has enabled us in digital communities. Besides, it represents many forms of digital content to explore social relationships. As the user base and competition have increased, social networks need a scalable, cost-effective back-end architecture to run an efficient business. There comes the role of cloud computing in social networking. But how social networking in cloud computing is being practiced?
Cloud is a reality that has blended with almost all other technologies. It is one of the most distinguished technological breakthroughs that has transformed the way business is done. No doubt, with social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, etc., there is enormous traffic flow every moment. To manage such high traffic, we have adopted cloud technology. And not to mention, as social networks help to enhance internet usability, it stores large multimedia content in cloud storage systems. Hence, the impact of cloud computing on social networking is prevalent. Photographs and videos, which are the most popular content in social media, occupy a large extent of space on the internet. Such vast content quickly slows down applications and servers with all of the necessary resources they demand. The role of cloud computing is countable here. Let’s see how social media uses cloud computing.
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Impact of cloud computing in social networking
The role of cloud computing in social networking has many dimensions.
– Cloud computing vendors such as Amazon and Salesforce nowadays provide various services, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). These services are delivered through cloud servers. Hence, clients can use the system’s scalability and flexibility, whereas they don’t need to purchase standalone hardware or software.
– Big data analysis for social sites is another face of utilizing cloud computing besides data storage. Business users can get more improved analytics through this.
– From a disaster recovery perspective, the cloud is a safer data storage option. Social networks can do data backup and data recovery at a reduced cost in the cloud. Additionally, data stored at a particular location is riskier than saving it to the cloud. When your data is in the cloud, there are no hardships encountered during recovery. Also, social network users can access shared resources from anywhere using cloud computing. No doubt, this is a beneficial option for most social networks as they hold personal information of its clients
So, we can say that cloud computing has several usages, and it is still being discovered. For example, soon, we will encounter the use of personal secure clouds. Snapchat, which is a new age social networks, and messaging apps, thrive on privacy. It will eventually utilize resources to offer a faster and secure service to its users.
Hence, the combined power of social networks and cloud computing has enrolled many online users into the networks. Additionally, with the freedom of interaction on social media with cloud computing, most users can freely share personal information via social media. Besides, this shares the storage of information into the cloud computing systems. However, the accumulation of diverse information raises challenges related to data security. This has stimulated the need to maintain personal data private and improve the trust of the service provider.
Challenges of Cloud Computing
In the social media network, the most critical issue is security and privacy in cloud-based environments. So, certain challenges and concerns related to cloud-based environments have been identified. There are the most appropriate current solutions are also available. Overall, it is anticipated that cloud computing will be the most important and challenging issue in the IT industry. There are six challenges selected here which has several impacts on social networking. The issues broadly identified are as follows:
-information protection
-privacy and data protection
-governance issues
-contractual issues
Apart from that, there are technological challenges.
Privacy and Trust
When users’ data is associated with the social network, privacy is a significant concern with social networks. The user identity protection varies across the various social network services available across the internet. Some websites, like Facebook, encourages the use of real names. This way, it makes a connection between the social network and public identities. Other sites, such as dating sites use some weak anonymity where only first names or a user-created name is used instead. Other than access by other users, there are questions on how these social networking services may be using the vast amounts of data that users are providing. Facebook’s policy states that information may be shared with third parties that do not identify or expose the user’s identity. So, in this case, marketing research companies can use this information to target advertisements to specific users. However, the social network graph topology, removed, and distorted data could affect data analysis and mining quality. So, how social network services in the cloud handle and balance the need for third-party data?
Ownership of Content
The massive amounts of social network data are mostly user-generated. However, different social media sites have different policies. For example, Facebook’s policies state that it will use its information to promote or connect with its service. However, when dealing with contents such as images, it remains private if set as private by user preferences. However, Facebook does not have extensive copyright or preference options, much like Flickr’s image sharing site. With Flickr, a user can set different policies through licenses: creative commons, no derivative works, etc.
Data Retention and Failures in the Cloud
Although cloud computing in social networking is beneficial in data storage, there are concerns about data control and centralizing data in the cloud. Should we place valuable data in the cloud? Because, if lost, there is little that can be done to recover that data. This is almost similar to the traditional model, where the organization itself manages data. However, when data is sent into the cloud, organizations relinquish some control measures, which requires trust that the cloud service provider will manage the data correctly.
Opportunities in Cloud Computing
Flexibility
As the cloud has the vast capacity of the service’s remote servers hence, with a cloud-based service, we can instantly meet the demand. In fact, this flexibility is so crucial that 65% of respondents to an Information Week survey said: “the ability to meet business demands” quickly was an important reason to move to cloud computing.
Disaster recovery
While you rely on cloud-based services, you no longer need to plan for a complex disaster recovery strategy. Cloud computing providers take care of most issues; at the same time, they do it faster. Besides, cloud computing suppliers do server maintenance that includes security updates. This frees up their customers’ resources and time for other tasks.
Cap-Ex Free
Most of the cloud computing services are pay as you go. Hence, there’s no need for capital expenditure at all. Furthermore, cloud computing is much faster to deploy, so businesses have minimal project start-up costs and predictable ongoing operating expenses.
Increased collaboration
Cloud computing increases collaboration by allowing all employees – wherever they are to sync up and work on documents and shared apps simultaneously and follow colleagues and records to receive critical updates in real-time.