What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
Summary: The Cloud conjures more paranoia than the federal government. The Cloud is computers. Computers are fallible. The Cloud is fallible.
I've noticed a very odd situation over the course of my time here at ZDNet: Cloud Paranoia. Every article that I write that even remotely touches on the topic of cloud computing, or the Cloud in general, meets with rancid anti-cloud commentary. It's as if someone were trying to steal your first born--or maybe more appropriately--someone is attempting to pull you away from World of Weirdcraft and wanting you to do something constructive for a change. Is there some sort of secret about cloud computing that the major vendors haven't made me aware of yet? Is there some anti-cloud group out there that has the corner on the market of what's appropriate to use? What is with all the Cloud paranoia?
I just don't get it.
It's almost as if the same people who keep 10,000 rounds of ammunition, barrels of water, a few hundred rolls of duct tape and MREs at home are spreading this weird cloud paranoia.
Stop it.
I know I could probably gather a lot of fans by saying, "Oh, the Cloud is a horrible, stinky, unsafe place in which to put your data."
But, I just can't do that. Because it isn't--isn't any of those.
Sure, the Cloud isn't perfect but it also isn't the IT death knell that many would have you believe. It's not a panacea either. But, it comes a lot closer to problem solver than it does to problem creator.
I think most of the angst and paranoia over cloud computing is due, in part, to a general security paranoia. Well, to that I'd like to say, "The safest bet for secure computing is to unplug your computer." As Kevin Mitnick told me, "There's no secure operating system." And, the Cloud that everyone loves to bash is no exception to that.
Paranoia runs so high when it comes to cloud computing that someone actually referred me to an unrelated story for me to read as evidence that cloud computing is a failure. Shocking. Truly shocking.
There is also a story that describes seven areas that Gartner cited as being security issues that customers need to investigate prior to selecting a cloud vendor. They're pretty vague at best, in my opinion. There are some better questions to ask instead of those that are most probably conjured from the mind and haphazard research of a non-technical journalist. Here are my seven questions to ask a cloud provider--from a technical point-of-view and from someone who uses cloud services.
- Does my data transfer to and from your site encrypted?
- Is my data encrypted on your systems?
- Can your employees look at my data?
- Is my password the only one that can unencrypt my data?
- Is my data stored in multiple locations to minimize loss in case of an outage?
- What is the restore time for my data in case of loss or damage?
- Do you offer data deduplication?
No paranoia there. Just good questions about a service. And, that is exactly what cloud computing is--a service.
And, before any of you cite Amazon's outage as an example of the failure of cloud computing, there's something that you should know about that outage. If Amazon cloud users had done as recommended (place their data into multiple locations) there wouldn't have been an outage for those customers.
It's actually kind of funny that techies will sing the praises of DR, multiple locations, backups and so on but when it comes to cloud computing, those same techies can't figure out why they experienced an outage, when they didn't follow their own great advice. Putting all of your data in a single location is just silly. Everyone knows that.
Everyone also knows, or should know, that outages are part of what happens in IT shops. No matter what you do or how careful you are--you can't control every variable--in the cloud, in the data center or in the 100 square foot server room next to your cubicle. SLAs exist to protect the customer but, if you're realistic, you realize that five minutes of downtime per year is pretty stupid. And, it's quite impossible. If you reboot a physical system, it takes more than five minutes.
We've set unrealistic expectations on the Cloud.
We've said that we expect 100% uptime. No exceptions. No excuses.
It's a good thing that Captain Kirk didn't hold Scotty to that same standard for transporter service aboard the Enterprise.
The Cloud isn't perfect people. Computers make up the Cloud. Computers are fallible. Therefore the Cloud is fallible. But, contrary to popular belief, it isn't more fallible just because we call it the Cloud.
Go shoot some targets. Water your lawn with some of that water. Feed your dogs those MREs. And, for goodness sake, get over your cloud paranoia. It's just weird. Stop it.
I now return you to your ongoing session of WoW. Beam me up, Scotty.
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Talkback
Not to worry
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
Want to buy my surplus duct tape and bullets?
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
The next time you see ...
You ignore life lessons and history, and blithely run around with your counterparts, waving the public cloud banner, as if it's the cure for cancer. You ignore the fact that people do better, when they themselves take care of affairs that are vital to themselves. You ignore the admonishment of not putting all your eggs into one or a relatively few baskets - which is to say, you ignore the point that it is a horrible idea to lump vital commercial data from countless stores, into a relative few, where hackers, terrorists, and other nefarious individuals, can easily take down our economy with relative ease. You ignore the fact, that when you have no physical control of your data, you ultimately have no control of your data. You ignore the fact that taking away ownership and control of data, will lead to a contraction of the computer industry, because ecosystems in which people own and manage stuff themselves, do much better than ecosystems where instead large entities own and manage people's stuff for them. E.g. a town in which everyone owns a car, generates much more transportation wealth than a town in which almost everyone takes public transportation. A town in which everyone owns a house, generates much more real estate wealth, than a town in which almost everyone lives in an apartment, or in public housing.
Public cloud computing has its place, but the idea that we will all live better off if we move all our data into the magical cloud, is simply utter nonsense - and dangerously ignores history.
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
What's with all the cloud irrational exuberance?
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
Maybe you can direct me to a few of them.
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
Here is one:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215842/L.A._may_sue_over_delays_in_Google_Apps_project_report_says?taxonomyId=158&pageNumber=1
Very nice troll about wow!
So, in your opinion, every single person who is against cloud computing is just a stupid WoW addict ? That's a very "constructive" opinion there.... You really should avoid writing such absurd things if you want people to take your article seriously.
No operating system is secure ? True enough. But I am pretty sure the level of security and privacy offered by cloud computing services is much lower than what can be accomplished with "regular" computing and a bit of technical knowledge.
I also agree with what was written in a previous comment : "ecosystems in which people own and manage stuff themselves, do much better than ecosystems where instead large entities own and manage people's stuff for them".
Besides, whatever convenience might be provided by cloud computing services, it's always a bad idea to concentrate users' data into one place (or several) where hackers (or just other companies / countries) can easily focus their efforts to crack through the security and retrieve all the data in one shot.
Anonymous and Lulzsec have already proved us that online services are far from secure so we should probably think twice before tossing all of our personal data into the cloud...
P.S : I've never played WoW in case you wondered...
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
Can you tell me why you think cloud computers are less secure than regular ones? A bad idea to concentrate user's data in into one place or several??? What's the alternative? Have the data concentrated onto a desktop computer? Have it concentrated onto tapes?
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
It's not about cloud computers being less secure than regular ones. Serious cloud companies undoubtedly enforce tight security policies.
The problem lies in the fact that a massive amount of data is being concentrated into one place. It then becomes very attractive for potential attackers to concentrate their efforts into hacking this particular service instead of trying to sneak into every single personal computer.
I remember the huge security failure that happened at Dropbox (which was not due to an attack) some time ago when users were able to login into any account without providing a password... I think that's a good example of the kind of security issue one can encounter when relying too much on data hosting cloud services.
Of course this concern for security only applies for data hosting. For other services such as cloud music I believe it's a matter of taste. In this case cloud computing is certainly not worse than regular computing.
The other major problem I see is privacy. Absolutely everything you do on these services can easily be tracked and associated with your account/profile. If it doesn't bother you that's fine but I understand people who are reluctant at trusting that companies will refrain from adopting such behaviour.
Eventually, to answer your question, concentrating ONE user's data onto a desktop computer + usb storage and/or NAS is probably a better idea than one thousand users' data into one place. And anyway I really think it's not a good idea to throw away the responsibility for our own data.
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
The comment about WoW is an example of people who are distracted by something else and don't get all the facts before they form an opinion. I'd like some concrete evidence that says the Cloud is somehow bad or worse than normal online computing. No one seems to give me that. And, referring me to other articles by journalists, especially non-technical journalists, don't impress me. I need facts, not conjecture.
This cloud paranoia reeks of Y2K paranoia, which I also came out against, yet people spent billions on it.
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
Well your article 'don't' impress me either. I would like some concrete reasons for putting my data in the cloud in the first place. I occasionally need to get a file, too large to email, to someone else. That is the only reason I have ever found for putting my data on the net. A little planning allows me to carry more than I could ever need in my pocket on a thumb drive. But then I don't travel extensively. I have no idea if data storage devices are confiscated at international borders. That might be another reason.
Is someone paying you to promote cloud storage? What prompts you so strongly to put your data out there, not only on one nice juicy target for hackers, but two or three?
When
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
Security through anonymity is a great thing.
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
What's the return on investment for trying to unencrypt data when probably 99% of it is useless to them?
risks of outsourcing data hosting and cloud
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
RE: What's with all the Cloud paranoia?
Maybe you can supply Bilderberg or other similar groups.