But some people find that position a bit paranoid, so I’ll offer a longer consideration here.
Today there’s a discussion of this buzzword over on Slashdot that has some useful definitions. I thought it might be useful to see what people working in IT have to say about the “cloud”:
Belial6 writes: “I can define the cloud for you. Cloud (noun) : The symbol used to indicate parts of the network that you have no knowledge of. Frequently used by people to describe external computer resources as a new concept when their knowledge of computers only extends back to 1998.”
dkf replies with: “That's the definition as it pertains to networking. It's now been extended to other types of hardware and certain types of software, and it all works on the concept of ‘I don't know where it is or what it looks like, but I do know that if I wave my hands like this then it all works just fine.’ As long as things actually do work, then that's a good thing: you're saved the effort of thinking about lots of frankly irrelevant crap (well, irrelevant to you; someone cares about it...)”
digitalhermit offers rebuttal: “Well, no. The cloud [...] referenced [is] an ‘abstracted data-center infrastructure’ and not necessarily a means of outsourcing applications. Yes, the downside/upside is that it eases moving workloads from internal to external clouds, but that's the point. [...] Is that a bad thing not to want to worry about the infrastructure?”
To which syousef replies: “Yes, it's a VERY VERY bad thing if your business and it's reputation relies on said infrastructure.”
So what to do with this information? You should worry about infrastructure. The infrastructure supporting your data, your computer work, is your computer and your Internet connection. And, if you’re smart, some sort of back-up infrastructure. The cloud comes in when you want to store data online for the purposes of sharing, collaboration, or simple storage and retrieval. Trust and reliability are the main issues here.
All of those activities make your data availability dependent upon more than just your own computer. You have to rely on your Internet service provider (ISP) and the entity that is actually storing your data for you. You also have to rely on the security of those things. If you are on an insecure network, your data is vulnerable while you work with it or move it from the “cloud” to your screen. (If you’re at the University of Tennessee, you are on an incredibly insecure network; accessing your data stream is trivially easy; it can be done with less than a minute of effort. This is also true of Starbucks and other places providing free wifi.)
You will have to pay for the privilege of cloud storage, either an explicit premium, current monetization of your data and attention, or future monetization of your data and attention.
And there are alternatives. If you want to back up your data, use an external hard drive or network-attached storage (NAS) device. Or limit your “cloud” usage to back up, not relying solely on it for information storage and retrieval; limit the data you store in the cloud to items that won’t damage you if they become publicly available (medical records, for example). DropBox and similar services are good for this (note: link benefits me, gives me more storage, and it comes with all the cloudy risks).
If you want to share data, consider an old PC for a file server, or the NAS I mentioned above, if you need to save money. On Ubuntu, MacOS X or even Windows, it’s pretty simple to set up a web server. And there are many other sharing options.
If you are an educator, do not just brush away FERPA regulations when it comes to the “cloud.” Consult the relevant department (IRB?) at your institution before moving your data onto the cloud. Or, better yet, contact your information technology department. They might have a better local storage option.
Greet the cloud with skepticism. It’s not data-heaven. It’s marketing (Larry Ellison rant).
