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RE: Is the cloud a better place for our data?

Matthew Hardy Updated - 26th Oct 2009

You're missing one important model that is so perfect, I
wonder why others don't copy it more. It's embodied in an
application called FileMaker. Backup, at a server level is
built-in and backup in a peer-to-peer context is as easy as
any backup (please don't try to make it sound so hard to
do).

Using dynamic DNS services (ex. No-IP.com), you can pick
a node anywhere on the net to host then access your own
data from anywhere from either a rich desktop client or
using any browser.

Extensibility, interoperability, data ownership and control;
FileMaker is a pretty remarkable combination of doing all
of what you're talking about extremely well while
answering every concern.

No I don't work for FileMaker, but I do have a FileMaker-
based solution for the real estate industry. I developed it in
FileMaker because I believe in data portability and data
interoperability first and foremost. It's a passion really.
Any debate over whether digital is real from a value
standpoint has been long-settled. Any cloud-based system
is not good enough until it's perfect. In my own
management of my own data, I've never lost any data since
I entered the computer industry in the 1980's.

I do not believe the debate over whether purchasing an
os-based software application versus having the life-
management benefits of software available only via never-
ending subscription payments is over. For instance, an
artist would be better leveraged by having knowledge of
Photoshop rather than by using lower-capability, ultimately
higher-cost hosted tools.

Your data is your most foundational tool in operating in
the world; therefore, where it's housed becomes inimitably
important.

I remember when the internet first started: it was heralded
as the perfect system for it's decentralization. Mmm. Now
everyone wants you to believe you have to store your stuff
on *their* hard drives and pay them forever for it as a
service. Pssst. Listen to the guy who's tellin' you a way to
get it done *without* another monthly payment.