Yeah, right.
Don't get me wrong; there's great potential for valuable interconnectivity by storing certain kinds of data on a server that's not your own computer or other device. Interactive calendars are one example; if everyone has to know what everyone else is doing, it's useful to have it all coordinated through a central clearing house.
Ditto for geographically dispersed workgroup members who need common access to documents.
And as a supplement to your own local data backups, having the added safety of redundant storage at another location is actually a pretty good idea.
Also, you don't need to be storing, say, vast quantities of video content that you watch infrequently or once. It's better to stream that content from a centralized server (à la Netflix, for example).
So clearly, there's a place for "the cloud" in your digital world.
But it has some HUGE downsides, and the folks who seem to want to store everything in "the cloud" are cruisin' for a bruisin'. Here are some of the reasons:
- Security – Everything that you store somewhere else is only as safe as the service that stores it for you. The bad guys are constantly trying to hack into everything, and if the data you're storing in the cloud contains important or sensitive personal or financial information, you're boned if the scumwads steal it. Of course, you're boned if they steal it directly from you too, but at least that's under your control. You lose that control when you entrust your data to others.
- Data loss - Whenever data is transmitted or stored, it's subject to corruption. Sure, that problem can be minimized, but there are always exceptions. What's more, equipment failure is a fact of life. If the server that's storing your data goes kaput, so does your data.
- Loss of access – The recent DOS (denial-of-service) attack on Evernote has seriously inconvenienced folks who can't connect to the server because some douche bags have overloaded the connections via a malicious DOS attack. And the malicious actions of ne'er-do-wells are not the only cause of loss of access. Equipment problems, loss of Internet connectivity, or other infrastructure glitches can be just as annoying.
- The backup myth - I hear these radio ads all the time hawking backup services in the cloud. The interesting thing about the ads is that they seem to be targeted at people who aren't backing up in the first place. If that's the case, then the people who are relying solely on cloud storage as their only backup are just plain crazy. See reasons 1 through 3 above.
- Cloud apps suck – There's a new insanity being promulgated called "software as a service". In that paradigm, you don't buy your applications and install them on your computer; rather, you rent them, and the apps actually reside on a remote server. Now, that might make sense for some folks, especially businesses who have a lot of users. But for individual users, it can be a very stupid idea...I mean, apart from the economics wherein you end up paying more for software...and you pay, and pay, and pay...forever. The reason it can be very stupid is actually threefold — that is, for all of the first three reasons listed above: less security, greater risk of data loss, and loss of access.
So sure, the cloud is useful, but it's not a panacea. If there really are folks who carry around a little Anorexia Chic™ tablet or notebook computer and store all their data in the cloud, their exposure hazard is enormous. And they probably don't know it.
