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I'm a little puzzled by peoples' fears about "the cloud." Frankly, I'd far rather store my data in a distributed system, accessible by all my devices, rather th

by hoag 16y ago

I'm a little puzzled by peoples' fears about "the cloud." Frankly, I'd far rather store my data in a distributed system, accessible by all my devices, rather than storing everything in a single losable/stealable/breakable device like a laptop. It's the whole "don't put all your eggs in one basket" maxim, really. Also, I do believe this article makes a critical error citing the failure of cloud services when events like Egypt's internet shut-down rendered Dropbox and like services useless: as far as I can tell, Dropbox stores a unique instance of every file both in the cloud and off-cloud alike. I.e., I can still access my Dropbox files even when without an internet connection. Similarly, should my laptop be stolen or lost, I can easily wipe the instanced data on the laptop by accessing my Dropxbox account via dropbox.com from any other device. Besides, if the fear of cloud storage is that data may be compromised, wasn't it even more of a risk back in the day to carry papers and documents in briefcases? Or to transmit important documents by train? Frankly, I think cloud solutions are far less risky than their offline counterparts. So... am I missing something?

octopus 16y ago
People fear of losing control of their data, as simple as that. On your own computer you will fear only of a hardware failure or a nasty virus. On the cloud ... well you are at the mercy of a provider, of a Government or of any organization that can stop you access your own data. (Personally I use Dropbox for storing some software projects.)
- hoag 16y ago
  I agree with you that many people have this fear. But it's a logically inconsistent fear: (1) As I mentioned, inability to access the cloud with Dropbox and like services -- or government/organizational intervention thereof -- does not impede your access to your data: all synced devices have separate, local instances of the data that are as up-to-date as the last time such device was online. (2) In any event, how is storing data "in the cloud" any different to storing email? It's all "up there" too. I don't see the distinction. My email is "online" and my cloud-stored data is online. What's the difference? And one could argue that email is -- at times, at least -- even more sensitive than actual data. (3) To fear "only ... a hardware failure or a nasty virus" is shortsighted: failure to maintain multiple instances of data, both on- and off-line alike, is far more risky indeed.

by hoag 16y ago

octopus 16y ago

People fear of losing control of their data, as simple as that. On your own computer you will fear only of a hardware failure or a nasty virus. On the cloud ... well you are at the mercy of a provider, of a Government or of any organization that can stop you access your own data. (Personally I use Dropbox for storing some software projects.)

hoag 16y ago
I agree with you that many people have this fear. But it's a logically inconsistent fear: (1) As I mentioned, inability to access the cloud with Dropbox and like services -- or government/organizational intervention thereof -- does not impede your access to your data: all synced devices have separate, local instances of the data that are as up-to-date as the last time such device was online. (2) In any event, how is storing data "in the cloud" any different to storing email? It's all "up there" too. I don't see the distinction. My email is "online" and my cloud-stored data is online. What's the difference? And one could argue that email is -- at times, at least -- even more sensitive than actual data. (3) To fear "only ... a hardware failure or a nasty virus" is shortsighted: failure to maintain multiple instances of data, both on- and off-line alike, is far more risky indeed.