Thoughts on Cloud Computing

Uh-oh...there's that word again...thoughts. For the regular blog readers, that means I'm analyzing a topic. Why? Because I like to observe, think, and learn.

There's a lot of talk about Cloud Computing lately. What is it? Imagine all your music, files, movies, games, etc that are on your computer, not on your computer. You log in to a huge data bank of servers somewhere else to access your digital life. We're not just talking about a blog or photo account here, but EVERYTHING. All you have is a stripped down computer or device to access your digital property of sorts. Sounds so convenient and Utopian right? Even a little Star Trek LCARS? What could be the harm? Think again.

Now let's think carefully about this, shall we? A person or company's everything is stored out on the web. What if the connection goes down? You can't work. You can't post. You can't call for help in an emergency. Nothing. Granted, we're all used to this with work network outages, but you can still get some work done on a proposal because your word processor is still on your machine, or you can keep editing those promo pics or movies, because the software is on your machine. With current networks, some, but not all are incapacitated. With Cloud Computing, everybody is incapacitated.

Remember that sensitive secret company data that competitors would just love to get their hands on, you know everything from latest projects to earnings reports? That's now on the Cloud, verses under company lock and key in an internal network...and somebody else (the Cloud provider) controls the access to it. In an age of shamelessly selling personal information to the highest bidder, what's to stop the provider from doing the same? A threatening lawsuit? The provider has your company by the mahbals, and even worse, can cozy up to a competitor if the price is right and allow them access to your secrets. If you're a business, that means potentially devastating losses, from projects, to customers, to contracts, to money. If you're the average person, it's another way someone can get into your financial info, etc, and exploit it.

Have you ever had iTunes go haywire and lock you out of your own music that's sitting, paid for, on your machine? What happens if the Cloud provider has a major glitch or mass failure? There is no way to back up the data or access it if HAL 9000 won't open the pod bay doors. You lose everything from pictures of the kids to wills in the digital equivalent of a house fire. Also, think about how troublesome it is to correct simple data in a personal account, like your cell phone, when someone has entered something in the wrong text field.

On the political front, if any country's enemy is technically savvy, they can cripple a country who is using Cloud Computing very easily. This in turn can play havoc with national defenses, communications systems, power and water systems, and even other secret projects that the general populace of a country doesn't know about.

Simply put, these are some serious trades that companies are pushing for and that we as individuals are eyeing in the name of convenience. We're negotiating and gambling yet more control and privacy here. These trades may save cash in the short term, but there is a great risk of bigger costs down the road due to potentially lost productivity or compromised sensitive info. And this goes from the individual all the way up to government.

Above anything else (and the true point of this article) we need to think carefully and act wisely in this latest exciting creative surge of technical possibility, lest we step into misfortune.

And, of course, my thanks for your time here. :)