Productivity & Trouble in “Cloud Camelot”
You can find stories all over the net about how we’re approaching a kind of nirvana with the onslaught of “cloud computing,” as if we are reaching toward a kind of “Cloud Camelot.”
Here is one such story that I came upon a in the Los Angeles Times; a look at Google’s new operating system and the advantages of operating “in the cloud,” meaning the use of internet servers instead of your local drive to store, access and use your data.
But perhaps things aren’t really so sunny and rosy in Cloud Camelot. Consider…
A friend of mine recently had his Gmail account canceled – without notice, without redress and no explanation, other than a cryptic message: “You violated our terms of service.” (TOS)
He has asked for and continues to await for an explanation. In the meantime, an email account he had for 5 years is gone.
While I believe there could be great promise with cloud computing – especially if you own the hardware and the plumbing, there are some potential problems worth taking into account as you make your choices.
#1 – You have a new master of what can be stored – the “cloud-keeper.” If you do something the cloud-keeper doesn’t like, and it acts as haughtily as did Google with my friend, you not only can lose access, but you can lose your data too. My friend asked, “Who’s data is it?” Before this happened to him, I would have answered that it was his data, and that I was sure that Google wouldn’t act otherwise. Looks like I was naive. So question: do you really want to be giving an organization that much power over you?
#2 – What it you store your data in the cloud and the cloud-keeper goes belly up, pushes up daisies and goes to the big erasing magnet in the sky? Again – your ability to access your data gets hosed.
I think that before I or any of my business efforts entrust my data “to the cloud,” the cloud-keeper had better make it very clear that (a) I will be warned if there is a problem relative to the TOS, (b) will give me an opportunity to get clarification and/or to defend myself if necessary, and (c) if the decision to terminate is final, that I have enough time and the ability to download my data from the cloud in a format that I can use.
Given the situation with my friend and his Gmail account, I think legitimate questions – business questions – need to be addressed before I will entrust my data into the cloud – not just Google, but any cloud. Because it appears that the cloud-keeper holds all the aces, and all I’ve got is 5 unrelated cards, with a 5 of spades as my high card. Not good.
