ok, here we are in "today" - we've kicked off the information age; moving down the field some. Yet, cloud is up n coming. Some might say we've been there for a while. Ok, maybe. Actually, cloud was in existence long before the term was even used - not by virtue of the Internet just "existing" - but even back in the early 90's where we had application service providers - and I would even contend that email in and of itself was considered a service, no different than phone actually.
But, we've applied a "modern" term to all of that - and called it cloud. But, today's cloud, by deliberate intent, is really a utility; whether or not you pay for it, it is an electronic offering - and it's everywhere... almost every possible industry has clouded something...
and I hate it. it scares the excrement out of me...
to add fuel to the fire of the sound of my barbaric yawp - I do web development for a living... imagine that.
so, let me qualify my yawp-ness.
I have been in the IT industry for close to 20 years - serving just about every aspect (i.e. consulting, working for ISP's, and web development)
I love what I do - coding is exciting to me. I love the fact that I can create / invent. it's rewarding.
But, over the last couple years the disposition of the internet has really changed, to cloud - we have become more and more dependent - not because we have ourselves wrapped around google and the like - but we have now started to put ourselves in the hands of others... we don't just seek information, we are taking our lives and storing it someplace else...
let me pause for a moment to interject a thought - it occurred to me a few years ago that it's not so much that the internet allows us to connect / communicate / share with others; it is now doubled back as a utility so we can stay connected to ourselves. we have all these connected devices and all these 3rd party cloudy things that store information and we sync with ourselves...
but there is a real problem with that - and that is we put the arbitrary trust in a set of conveniences. Forget for the moment whether we pay for it or if it is free. we are offshoring everything about ourselves. that's dangerous in my opinion.
what's worse is the whole set of rules change too, as to our privacy, as to what can / can't be stored - if you think a moderated forum poses issues, just grab a EULA for Microsoft's cloud services, who reserves the right to deem something of yours inappropriate, and can get you in trouble, whereas on your own personal storage devices it'd never be an issue. two good examples. You buy a CD, copy it - under the fair use act, by law, that's allowable. Yet take that copyrighted content and store it on someone else's server, they will most likely have a big issue with that. Second, your own works, say pictures you take, which under certain rules, if you cannot prove copyright, there's trouble.
Now, imagine an attack, on cloud resources - we've seen it, and what if all your digital life is somewhere else, for the sake of convenience, then one day - it's gone... did you back up? did not have to right, cause you trusted the cloud. and there is no liability / responsibility / promise by a vendor who'd back you. if it's gone it's gone...
to make matters worse - a rumor surfaces, where Microsoft is going to do a Windows-as-a-service for a fee - what then... what if you stop payment - will they hold your clouded data hostage till you do, or will they delete it - all depends on the EULA... this could happen even if your data is stored locally in your home / office. what then...
why would anyone EVER want to put themselves in that position.. not me...
and so it goes.