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On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 1:14 PM, Simon Waters <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 12/05/11 11:51, Roland Tarver wrote:
>>
>> It all sounds lovely, but - everything in "the cloud" :-s ??? Really?
>> Although I have no evidence or experience to prove it (except the
>> recent amazon outage) I just don't have a good gut "feeling" about all
>> my data (or mums, etc) in "the cloud"? Do you? Do others?
>
> The recent Amazon outage didn't lose data (or at least only very recent
> or volatile data) as far as I am aware.
I think the main business impact was not being able to access their
data for several days. I think this had several cost implications and
loss of business etc.
> Gut feelings are the wrong approach, but the answer is likely to be
> provider dependent.
Perhaps, but not necessarily. Intuition ("gut feeling") is often based
on cumulative experience in a similar field and has been shown to
produce accurate results.
However, I am not for one second suggesting that an evaluation of
"cloud" computing be based on intuition! lol!
> There is a reasonable question of whether you can back-up your data, and
> if you can, whether that data is useful should the current provider fail
> in some way (including refusing future business from yourself).
>
> For the average user the question is "is the reliability good enough",
> and in most cases I suspect the answer is "yes". Many users don't
> back-up data regularly and those that do often do it poorly or
> infrequently so outsourcing is a win for them.
That's a fair point.
> I think part of this is irrational fear of loss of control, I think of
> this as the "illusion of control", but there is a rather more specific
> concept in psychology with that name already. We much prefer things to
> be in our control, such as driving cars, even when the evidence suggests
> this is not the safest approach.
I think I probably trust the hardware with my data. What I am more
reluctant to trust is the human element. Companies go bust. Change
their terms and conditions (or subject you to them in the first
place)....etc?
> There are new risks with outsourcing data storage, it is easier for law
> enforcement to get their hands on it for example. But our fear of these
> risks are probably disproportionate (unless there is good reason law
> enforcement at likely to care about you - but if you aren't Assange, and
> you aren't a habitual criminal...).
>
> Sure the set of risks change somewhat, but some risks are reduced; for
> example data centres are often located in geologically stable areas with
> low flood risk - not a big issue in Devon and Cornwall, but there are
> probably plenty of folks in the world whose houses are at much more risk
> than these strategically located data centres. Strangely not all data
> centres are so located - but as I said the answer may well be provider
> dependent. Similarly data centres are probably safer from a whole range
> of other issues like theft, toddlers etc.
Agreed. So too, I am sure, would the the people of Japan and
Christchurch (etc)! I guess this a significant benefit.
> Because the back-up schedule is in our control we are happier, even if
> our own habits in the area are erratic and unpredictable, where as if
> the cloud owner has some boring methodical procedure carried out by
> robots each day it is probably best to leave it to them.
Probably. Especially for "typical" (non-IT savvy) users. But there is
still a human, who is not me, controlling the cloud and my data?
Surely it is not just machines efficiently carrying out tasks? hmmm.
Not convinced. lol.
Does anyone currently keep all their documents on-line? Do cloud
service provides make it easy for you to (r)sync your data with a
local copy? I would feel (remember intuition :-p) happier about it
then....lol.....
Best wishes
roly :-)
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