This topic keeps coming up from time to time and seems t be building steam as it goes. Unfortunately, I don’t believe most lay people understand what we/they are talking about when cloud computing is being discussed. Cloud computing has completely revolutionized the way we think of personal/business computing and made computers much more affordable for all of us.
In the early days of computing, it required a computer the size of a small building to perform the simplest tasks, but the advent of new technology and network connected computers have allowed computers to fit in the palms of our hands. As computers have gotten smaller, our demands for our computers have grown but those demands have grown faster than than the computers have been able to shrink. While our smartphones and tables computers are “smarter” than anything we had 30 and 40 years ago, they still aren’t “smart” enough to do some of the things that we demand that they do, such as translate our documents into other languages, tell us how to get to the nearest restaurant, or even help us retrieve the news of the day. Our “smart”phones use the cloud to perform many of these actions (The apps on our phones are merely interfaces that go out to larger server farms that perform those complex functions for us and return the results to our phones) and those functions of the cloud can be very good if used responsibly.
Unfortunately, there are companies and other entities out there that can, will, and do use cloud data and power for irresponsible or nefarious purposes. For example, there have been two companies singled out in the last year (Google and Apple) for their apparent tracking of consumer cell phone location data. These two cases involved the setup of the software on phones by these two companies that tracked cell phone locations that routinely reported the statistics back to cloud-based servers for purposes of marketing and/or improving the location algorithms of installed apps on the phones. However, the perception was that these two companies were using the data for other purposes and the nature of the data could be used for other means (i.e. subpoenas for court cases, tracking consumer movements, etc).
We’ve also seen cases over the last year or so of cloud-based services that have been hacked or otherwise compromised and exposing consumer data to the intruders such as the Sony Playstation network breach, Amazon.com, and NBC News Twitter accounts among others. These breaches bring to light the primary issue I have with Cloud computing and that is: “Is your data safe?” or “Do you trust the company where you’re storing your data?”
It’s one thing to use the Cloud to help your phone find the nearest restaurant to your current location, but what about storing all of your financial data in the Cloud? Uploading all of your family photos in the Cloud? Storing all of your most intimate thoughts in the Cloud? For most of us, these questions might not mean a whole lot and it’s probably not a big deal, but what about the small business owner that keeps all of their financials electronically? Having those compromised could destroy a credit rating and ruin the business. Do you want to take the chance? Are their other alternatives?
As with all purchases, I strongly caution everyone to do their research on the company they would be trusting to store their data and ask themselves these questions. Nothing is 100% secure. You could also keep all of the above on CD or in a safe in your bedroom and it’s not 100% secure, but look at all of your alternatives and determine what you really need before making a decision. There are literally hundreds of Cloud computing providers on the ‘Net with many offering low cost or FREE services, but remember, “You get what you pay for!‘