I have been reading articles about cloud computing recently and have found some important points about this whole trend of moving to cloud computing. I thought it would be great to share and extend these points for those thinking of going to cloud computing, particularly those looking at Google's upcoming Chrome OS which is based on the cloud, or those watching the new line of MS ads all about the mysterious cloud.

So what is cloud computing? Its running your apps, storing your data and even running parts of your underlying OS on a series of servers instead of on your own PC. As webmasters, we are comfortable with working online all the time, but what happens when we push these PC-based concepts to the online cloud?

Own vs Lease
Cloud computing relies on the monthly rebilling model, including leasing software. Investing in a one-time purchase of software that will provide you with years of use is way cheaper than even an extremely cheap monthly rental. Look at a product like HomeSite, its latest version 5.5 (which I still use) was released in 2003 for $69. At a modest "iPhone style" charge of $4.99/mo for a cloud version, 7 years of use would cost $419.60, and at the end of it you still don't own anything tangible. And that is just one app, imagine renting all your apps, you would end up at the end of every year with a huge bill and nothing to show for it.

Online Security
We all know that systems that are online 24.7 are less secure than those that are not. I would guess that at one point, every one of us has had some minor hacking issues with our online life. Keeping your personal data in the cloud leaves it vulnerable to these threats all the time. How can we trust that the cloud is secure when major secure systems like banks, military and government computers are hacked regularly. Personally, I keep all my login information on a flash USB drive and I remove that drive when I know I will be away from my computer, including every night.

Being Cut Off
So what happens when you are cut off, for any reason? We all travel, and although there are short term solutions for offline work while in transit, what happens when you are on a long flight and realize you forgot to keep an offline copy of that document you need. Or what about when a company finds out your account is related to the adult industry and they decide you are using their services against their t&c.

Legal Issues
A couple of years back I read an article in CPU magazine talking about the future of googlemail and other online mail services, and it gave a huge warning saying that the US government (thru some bill just introduced at the time) actually has the right to look at the content of any online emails or documents. And the kicker is, it is illegal for the company hosting that online data to tell the person it belongs to that the US gov has done a review or audit. The article was specifically warning against lawyers, accountants, etc, using these services for this reason.

I also read more recent article in PC World that was reviewing online backup services, they commented that you really should only use an online backup service that encrypts your data, and this article mentioned the same thing about the US government having the right to audit your online data so the only way to protect your privacy was to ensure you had strong encryption.

So can you really trust big businesses and governments with your personal info?

Speed
Google's upcoming Chrome OS is based on the cloud, and reports to have a faster boot time. I find this extremely suspect, as I am sitting here working on a 2Mbps connection that often seems slower than a dial-up modem. I also know that in order to obtain the speed, Chrome OS is a lightweight set of code that has been stripped of bloat-ware that we find in Windows and even MacOS and Linux. I wonder if we would see the same speed increases if Microsoft and Mac focused on lightweight OSes running on RAM-only startup disks.

Bottom Line
I know the concepts and ideas behind cloud computing very well. Back in the year 2000 I was offered a position for a company that worked exclusively developing online apps for Australian businesses. They were well ahead of their time, and have since gone bankrupt (oops..glad I never took that job!).

There are good ideas and concepts with cloud computing that can't be ignored. Using cloud servers can let you expand and contract your online business within a few minutes, letting you optimize delivery of your pages when you have peak traffic conditions like after getting unexpected publicity or having a very successful ad campaign.

But I don't think that this trendy move to putting everything online is going to do anyone any good. Lets let cloud computing excel in the server space where it should, and keep our senses when it comes to things that should stay on your local computer!

Article written by Luke
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