Personal computing discussed
just brew it! wrote:I find myself saying this with increasing frequency lately: Letting someone else manage your data means you no longer control your data. If you think about it, it is also effectively a throwback to the mainframe/terminal paradigm, putting everyone at the mercy of the "high priests" who run the datacenters.
Madman wrote:Reading the IT news I stumbled upon yet another glorification of could computing - http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/2 ... ter-Center
And I'm still not sold on this. IMHO, the cloud computing is sucky idea, and works under some limited circumstances at best. Yet, I haven't been in extensive discussion about this topic involving more than 3 people.
There is no arguing that central data stores will be more pronounced in coming years. I recently brought gigabit NAS device for home use for sole reason to have Thunderbird profile that's accessible from multiple PCs and in dual-boot setups (Windows/Ubuntu). It also adds a piece of mind for one more place of backups, RAID 1 HDDs and allows for easier photo and document sharing, which I can now process on a laptop while sitting on a couch or on the primary PC.
But Microsoft/Google/Amazon/Megaupload/Steam etc. glorified cloud is super ugly solution at best if you ask me.
1) Privacy and security sucks, they are targeted constantly, there are leaks and failures, CC numbers, user database leaks, etc.
2) The services can go off-line without your vote at all. If you had legit files on Megaupload, sucks for you. The same can happen to any of the cloud providers
3) The cost, if you're enterprise, you must be super "genius" to go for AWS or something like that as your primary data store. As security, costs and usability stinks compared to collocation. Unless your demand tends to spike to 1000% over short periods of time.
4) Always on-line applications suck. I'm using Waze for navigation lately, and that thing constantly looses Internet connection, cannot download maps, complains about servers busy and so on. Completely kills any usability compared to any preinstalled software. Only reason why I still use is realtime notifications and report about conditions.
5) Software leasing, Steam, EA, etc., quickly caught the bonus of the cloud for shareholders, we will lease software so that users who pay 50$ won't own anything at all. We can terminate licenses, force EOL for products, disable resale, and push constant stream of day 1 DLCs for everything.
What are your opinions on all this Cloud thing?
AntiSp4wn wrote:I'm a web developer cloud enthusiast, so you can bet where my guess is.
I would describe the move to the cloud as inevitable, and I'm bemused by those who don't see this shift coming when it's already well underway. The benefits are so significant I can't see anything changing that.
AntiSp4wn wrote:No.
AntiSp4wn wrote:To address the negatives you described specifically: the security risk argument is silly, heck a Chromebook is the most secure system made commercially available ever. Thin clients by nature can be made far more secure than your windows or mac will ever be. All that said security has not advanced as quickly as our demand for it's use has, once that catches up all systems will be made more secure.
AntiSp4wn wrote:Your second point about up-time doesn't work either. Google's up-time is better than any normal mortal could hope to achieve. Sure you could build a system in your home with some fancy backup technology, but then your house burns down. In all the years I've used Google's services I haven't personally suffered one shortage--indeed few have. Yet in that time I've had hard drives go, power supplies, and all the other woes that befall the common man. Sure I spent the time with RAID setups, external harddrives, home servers, off site backups, but nothing remotely as fast to recover from as if a Chromebook died on you. And all of your data is constantly backed up with greater redundancy than the home user could ever achieve.
AntiSp4wn wrote:That's a balance between cloud and a VPN. I wouldn't call VPN/SSH/SSL connection to enterprise owned and enterprise administered collocation facility a cloud.In at least the short term, Enterprises will find great benefits in their own private clouds. Using Citrix type solutions in combination with thin clients, chromebook-esque type systems if you will, offers massive IT savings.
AntiSp4wn wrote:offers massive IT savings
just brew it! wrote:It likely wouldn't pass muster for permanent storage of any sort of classified data either, encrypted or not. You cannot truly appreciate the meaning of the phrase "data security paranoia" until you've dealt with that world.
just brew it! wrote:It likely wouldn't pass muster for permanent storage of any sort of classified data either, encrypted or not. You cannot truly appreciate the meaning of the phrase "data security paranoia" until you've dealt with that world.
Madman wrote:Like, what if it glitched?
Captain Ned wrote:AntiSp4wn wrote:No.
The book of related standards is several hundred pages long. And we regulators check each and every single item.
Yes, cloud makes sense for some. In my world it's nothing more than another untested unverifiable danger that can easily be controlled by keeping all data local.
AntiSp4wn wrote:I don't know/understand what you do or what you're talking about so I hesitate to put my foot too far in my mouth.
AntiSp4wn wrote:At a fifty-thousand-foot level the cloud is definitely not untested or unverified. It's extremely robust, powerful, stable (footnote: in the proper hands).
AntiSp4wn wrote:One that frankly is a much lower risk than keeping my files locally. I still keep a local backup, because I'm very anal about my data, but I recognize that my own best practices are inferior to the googleplex, and that with complex passwords, 2-step phone verification, encrypted connections, a quality properly configured router, that I am well ahead of the game. And if I access this data with a Chromebook, well that entire machine is encrypted as well. If the Chromebook breaks, I open up a new one and am right back where I left off with, from anywhere in the world. And that's just data security and access, not even touching upon the software side that this thread was more so about.
danny e. wrote:I'm going to guess that many of us can't comment much about it due to NDA.
However, i'll say this, if you work in .Net and you haven't taken a good, hard look at Windows Azure, then you should.
Madman wrote:danny e. wrote:I'm going to guess that many of us can't comment much about it due to NDA.
However, i'll say this, if you work in .Net and you haven't taken a good, hard look at Windows Azure, then you should.
I don't think NDA is an issue with cloud providers, as most data is widely available via press, cloud service support forums and advertisement materials.
Madman wrote:AntiSp4wn wrote:One that frankly is a much lower risk than keeping my files locally. I still keep a local backup, because I'm very anal about my data, but I recognize that my own best practices are inferior to the googleplex, and that with complex passwords, 2-step phone verification, encrypted connections, a quality properly configured router, that I am well ahead of the game. And if I access this data with a Chromebook, well that entire machine is encrypted as well. If the Chromebook breaks, I open up a new one and am right back where I left off with, from anywhere in the world. And that's just data security and access, not even touching upon the software side that this thread was more so about.
You can use bitlocker encrypted drives with Windows, or AES encrypted volumes for Linux, + router + firewall + limited user + patched PC and that setup will be way, way more secure than online solution. Of course that goes down the drain as soon as someone starts downloading pr0n on that machine via admin account.
danny e. wrote:However, you get a pay check right?
A large number of you do and a large number use ADP.
So, you're pretty much all up in that cloud already whether you knew it or not.
StuG wrote:I work in web-hosting and I think it's going to take center stage in the coming years.
Madman wrote:StuG wrote:I work in web-hosting and I think it's going to take center stage in the coming years.
But why? It's a lot more expensive than collocation over 1 year period.
just brew it! wrote:Madman wrote:...
If your app doesn't require a heavy-duty server a cloud-based VM is a lot cheaper than co-location. It's also a lot more flexible, regardless of the size of server you need.
AntiSp4wn wrote:Today I have all of my information in the cloud. It's a calculated risk. One that frankly is a much lower risk than keeping my files locally. I still keep a local backup, because I'm very anal about my data, but I recognize that my own best practices are inferior to the googleplex, and that with complex passwords, 2-step phone verification, encrypted connections, a quality properly configured router, that I am well ahead of the game. And if I access this data with a Chromebook, well that entire machine is encrypted as well. If the Chromebook breaks, I open up a new one and am right back where I left off with, from anywhere in the world. And that's just data security and access, not even touching upon the software side that this thread was more so about.