If your home was a business and required a fully redundant client server application, the primary web application server would be snuggled in a safe spot under your basement stairs (assuming you have a basement, and assuming it has stairs).

The workstations would host only a web browser, so they could be basically generic PCs or even terminals.

Let the data backup and application updates happen during off-peak hours (4AM).

You could still run your ‘google apps’, but the version would be the one you have on your own webserver, and the online version would be used in case of local server failure, or when traveling.

Data privacy can be handled to a good extent with encryption, and you could choose not to have very sensitive subject to online backup.

For those who are so afraid of having all your data online….it already is.

The IRS, the credit card companies, the credit bureaus, your Bank, your insurance company, etc…..it’s all online already.

The issue is trust.

The way to earn trust to promote and enforce security standards, such as the PCI standards for credit card processing.

#22
my point exactly

Yes owning your own cloud is cool, that’s how one o of the biggest (maybe the biggest) does it… or at least is migrating most apps to. merger after merger web based apps have.

Own your own cloud, back that cloud up to another cloud that you don’t own (at least for data)

You can have quite a lot of disk space on a NAS these days. You can also access that NAS remotely, so that cloud data back-up point is moot.

However, backing up data on the net can be handy. There are many free places that will give you HDD space. The odds are against losing your HDD and their HDD at the same time.

Yes EULAs can suck everything up.

The web is a great way to share data.

The schools are using cloud computing. Attendence, records of infractions and how they are handled, grades posted so that all stake holders can see what they are due whenever they have the time or the need.

You still need to be able to work when the connection is down or the site is down. You don’t always get that.

Most on line testing software I’ve experience with is a bug feast.

Your fifth point is the most valid one here!!

EVERYTHING goes in CYCLES.

Cloud Computing (horrible moniker BTW) = Dumb Terminal/Mainframe computing.

vs.

PC based computing.

Both have an equal number of pluses and minuses. That’s why things like this go in cycles.

In the business world Cloud computing makes TOTAL sense. Why maintain so many PC’s with so many security vulnerabilities? Also lock down your control of data and software, and monitor your employees better, etc.

In the personal world I think the way be do things now with your own apps on your own machine makes sense. I agree that companies like google are trying to lock you down to their software and storage. Security of your personal data is also a concern.

I use gmail with the Gspace addon for firefox to transfer NON-VITAL information or encrypted files. I also rotate my local backups to more than one SD card (that I have found to be more reliable than USB thumb drives) – I don’t trust me or the Cloud!

You won’t see Cloud taking off when you have areas like mine where “high-speed Internet” is 256Kb – yes, the world would be totally different if we had Teledesic, but we don’t! (and that would make a fascinating “What happened to… article for John). At 256Kb – streaming video is a gleam in your eye and trying to run online apps is mind numbingly frustrating.

I have often preached that M$ would LOVE to have their OS “in the cloud” – You walk up to a box,hold out your wrist for it to read your implanted chip, and up boots the OS with your settings, info and apps all their. No viruses,no pirated software, your OS is always patched, and you can go anywhere and be on “your computer”. Of course, no privacy and no control and Walmart sells the boxes for $69.95 and I am out of a job repairing computers.

AC

That is the worst aspect of cloud computing. You assume that the provider will be careful enough to control who can and can’t access the data? Even the security paranoid organizations get broken in (Banks, Pentagon,…). Service like Amazon S3? I’d bet that hackers are browsing it up and down. Also, the providers in this day and age have interest to snoop, for many that would be the main source of income from these setups (not that they’ll tell you).

Now, what I want from the cloud is storage and connectivity.

I want my apps to run from the installed machine or a CD/DVD/USB or Flash Drive on any compatible computer I connect it to. No registry, no installation and ease of use!

Save my data to a web based storage (take a peek at amazon’s S3) that I can access and give me control of who can and can’t access it.

They’ve been trying to push cloud computing for a few years (ok, many years) and it won’t work until a reasonable connectivity speed is available to everyone! I still know people who have high speed at work but have to suffer with dialup at home (yup, Oregon)!

We’ve got a bunch of greedy, lazy and lame executives, board members and managers who see cloud computing as a way to sit on their fat, lardy asses and make money (I didn’t say earn it).

Finally, with all of the ISP’s looking to screw us with limiting download and upload amounts do you think you are going to transfer huge amounts of code and or data each day? Will your employer pay you back at a dollar or more for each gig you are over your limit?

That last point is very important, look at how much you are charged to send SMS messages on your cell phone, especially if you go over your plans limit! This is for 140 bytes of text!!

So you better be ready for the screwing your gonna get just so some executive or manager can make their bonus and send their girl/boy friend to sunny cancun in the winter!

using web services, like flickr or gmail is not what I would call cloud computing.

If you want to spend capital on buying your own servers and internet transit and rack space and cooling and power.. go right ahead.

If you have a great idea and want a way to deploy it fast and cheap… services like ec2 are worth considering.

Common sense be damned, I want to be cool. As I said before, people going into these scams deserves what’s coming to them.

I’m not even going to counterpoint the moronic (yes, no other word to describe this behaviour) rationale I’ve already read here trying to, like self assuring mantras, give “sound” base as to why it is good to give your data to someone else. And to think there was that old adage about candies & kids.

Becasue Corporations are better than Goverments: As I said before, how can a society so bent over privacy be happy with this idea beats me and the explanations I can find are located in a dictionary next to the definitions of ignorance and conformism.

That a bussines can find cloud computing/storage appealing I could understand, yet faced with that possibility on a board I would instantly refuse. But individuals have no excuse whatsoever in adopting this stupid caricature for progress.

If anything, the ones looking seriously at this have their brains alredy in the cloud.

In personal experience I can assure you that GoogleMail is surprisingly unreliable!

Other than e-mail, no way would I ever want to use cloud computing! I like to have my apps and data with me in the machine. I’ll back it up how I want to.

The advantage of GMail is that you can send and receive your mail from anywhere with a WiFi connection or an Ethernet port. However I sure don’t want to leave my Email in the GMail “cloud” for any longer than I have to.