There was a worrying article on a leading technology oriented blog recently where one of the writers declared she was not a great fan of cloud computing. Now don’t get me wrong, I do not believe that all writers who contribute to web based and technology based blogs, magazines or whatever should be slavishly in love with the cloud and migrate their entire life there, but I was concerned more about the writer’s misconceptions and low-level ignorance and the nature of the replies that agreed with the article and which showed a distinct lack of knowledge about the various aspects of cloud computing. What also gave me cause for concern is that the editor let the article out in to the wild full of holes.
Let us look at the original article and respond to the points first made:
1: Access. Putting all my data in the cloud means I need an Internet connection to be able to do my work.
Wrong! Check out Google Gears which allows you to access any Google applications offline. Also, using an off-line email client such as Thunderbird or even Outlook Express will ensure you have access to you email and this is important if Gmail has another outage – its POP3 and IMAP services keep working.
2: Backups. Very few cloud services provide for making a local backup of customers’ online data, leaving me to trust the service itself to do it. I prefer the security of having my own data backups.
Wrong! Mozy, SugarSync, Cloudberry Labs to name just three off the top off my head are dedicated backup services that are robust and reliable. You can also use file sharing facilities such as Box or Dropbox to back up data.
3: Data Loss. One particular issue that I’ve experienced with cloud services is with those set to sync with other devices or services. If one of the sync locations experiences data loss, the other locations see the lost items as deleted and delete them from their storage as well.
I am not too sure sure where the author was going on this one and I have never known this and if you choose your services correctly you should be bombproof.
4: Service Stability. When I buy software for my computer, I have it for as long as it is compatible with my machine’s operating system. If the software’s designer goes out of business, I can continue using it. With SaaS cloud services, I am dependent on those services continuing to operate to be able to do my work.
The beauty of cloud-based SAAS services is that you don’t have to worry about keeping up to date as this is done automatically. In the years I have been using services such as Google Docs and Zoho upgrades and enhancements have happened seamlessly and almost invisibly. If I wanted to keep up with the game with MS Office, for example, I have to pay a small fortune to upgrade from 2003 to 2007. How many years down the line will it be when MS doesn’t allow for backward compatibility?
5: Privacy & Security. Last, but definitely not least, putting data in the cloud raises a whole host (pun intended) of security and privacy issues. It is easier to protect data that is held on a single local machine than it is to guard against breaches on a server-based cloud system. Having a public point of log-in raises the risk of security breach via compromised password, and data can also be breached in general server attacks, not even specifically targeted to your data.
Some time ago both my main drive and external backup drive got fried for some reason. If my data hadn’t been stored on the cloud I would have lost the lot. As it was eight months worth of turning my CD collection into MP3s was lost and I’d probably redo the lot onto a cloud-based system if it wouldn’t take three weeks to upload and seriously piss off my service provider for hogging bandwidth!
The issues with passwords are largely human ones where individuals chose weak passwords or use the same password for everything. In more than 15 years on the Internet I have never had a problem (touch wood, throw salt over shoulder or whatever!) If you cannot work out what is a safe and robust password there are electronic password generators that will do the job for you.
In the responses to the original article there were the usual fears about security, etc and one of the points put forward which I think was valid when the author said: "If you were the target of legal action, would you want your data’s defence in the hands of a cloud service that has no financial interest in actually protecting you? They aren’t going to take a lot of interest – or spend a lot of money – in opposing a subpoena for data held on their service in most cases. I’d rather have a lawyer working for me defending my data."
One response was "Ridiculous! You’re actually stating that the cloud is unsafe because you are afraid of litigation and what *might* happen to your precious data … what are you worried about? Are you doing something illegal with your data or are you just paranoid."
Fair to some extent, but I do believe that the finer legal points of data storage and whether some Government can demand access to your stuff needs to be tackled by better legal minds than mine. Only this week The Register reports that a bank is suing Google for the ID of someone who released unauthorised client details!
The cloud is relatively new and there will be teething problems but we won’t solve those by shying away from the challenges. Only by tackling any problems head on will we reap the true benefits.
PS: I’d like to add that I don’t consider myself an expert, I’m just a journeyman finding my way but I am prepared to take risks and believe that beaten paths are for beaten men.
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