The 'cloud' - turns out it's a dust storm...
The one thing that REALLY worries me is this tendency pundits seem to have to really believe that 'cloud' (clod) computing is the absolute way forward. If there's anything those of us who actually work in the industry are sure of, it is that there are a few absolute killers of any possibility to moving your data to the 'cloud'.
1. Do you really want all of your data placed on someone else's servers, to be scanned, indexed and kept by that company. Don't try to tell me that the data wouldn't be thoroughly 'raped' by companies such as Google and Microsoft. (Harsh term, yes I know - says how I feel about it though).
2. Are you really so sure in your provider never going bust? You know, when that company that seemed so great who has all of your data to hand suddenly collapses like a flan in a cupboard, and their servers are sold off to cover the administration fees?
3. Are you really so confident that you, and all of your company workstations, will be 100% uptime connected to your data, with no glitches, slowdowns or firewall faults, etc? I wouldn't be. Hell, in this country I'd pretty much EXPECT BT's woefully sh*te infrastructure to fail me.
4. So how much do you trust your employees? OK, that's good. Now, how much do you trust other companies' employees? Put your data up on a system and you are putting it at the mercy of anyone who can access that system. I know from experience that computer security is only as good as the trustworthiness of those who have physical access to the servers. I mean, right now we have any poxy teenage first-job part-time council employee having access to our private data. Do you really, HONESTLY, think it would be any different?