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First things first, web-based doesn't imply cloud-based. You can have a web-based service that's hosted on your servers and only services your intranet. This wa

First things first, web-based doesn't imply cloud-based. You can have a web-based service that's hosted on your servers and only services your intranet. This way you get most of the advantages of the web (no software to install and maintain, and easy access to the resources by your users), and still maintain control over your stack. There is very little reason to build desktop software anymore. >For a document that the visitor cannot afford to lose, or for anything in which privacy, security or personal control are issues, a Web-based document is obviously a mistake I don't see the obviousness of this. In fact, if it's a document that you cannot afford to lose, a cloud service makes much more sense than something stored locally (even with backup procedures). There are cloud services that handle sensitive data (such as patient records and images) today, successfully. Yes, there may be cases in which it makes sense to have data reside on your servers, as opposed to on some cloud-provider's, but those are edge cases now. We recently went through something like this at work, instead of hosting and maintaining our own Sharepoint servers, we went with a cloud-based CRM. It makes too much sense. Our source code, which is by far the most valuable piece of our business, is hosted on kiln. We do have backup strategies in cases kiln servers get hit by an asteroid, but we have no qualms about fogcreek maintaining our codebase. >Why do you think the big players in cloud-based and Web-based storage and applications are having such a hard time getting people to adopt them? That is absolutely false. In fact, the opposite is true. The trend has been to offload almost everything to the cloud. The big cloud-storage guys all had phenomenal growth. >The data loss was apparently small relative to the total data stored, but anyone who runs a web site can immediately understand how terrifying a prospect any data loss is." And how are you immune to this when YOU are responsible for managing your backup strategy and maintain your servers. Do you know how many horror stories there are of data loss that occurred because of things like bad RAID setup. Backup, replication, server maintenance is hard, expensive and time consuming, and most of the time it has no relevance to the underlying business. If you're in the business of making plastic widgets, you want to focus on making plastic widgets, and leave server maintenance to those whose entire business is server maintenance.

lutusp 14y ago
> First things first, web-based doesn't imply cloud-based. True, but there are few applications that reside in a browser that don't use cloud-based storage for the results. One may safely refer to Web-based and cloud-based technologies in a single breath. >> Why do you think the big players in cloud-based and Web-based storage and applications are having such a hard time getting people to adopt them? > That is absolutely false. No, it's true, and you need to do impartial research before making this sort of claim. The big players are having a hard time getting people to adopt cloud-based and Web-based technologies, and I already gave the reasons. http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/its-cloud-resistance-starting-annoy-businesses-383 http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/its-cloud-resista... A quote: "Accenture and the LSE surveyed more than 1,035 business and IT executives and conducted more than 35 interviews with cloud providers, system integrators, and cloud service users. The key finding: There's a gap between business and IT. Businesspeople see the excitement and business benefits of cloud computing, so they're pushing for it. However, IT people see cloud computing as causing issues with security and lock-in, so they're pushing back." > And how are you immune to this when YOU are responsible for managing your backup strategy and maintain your servers. This is a non-argument fort an obvious reason -- if infrastructure data loss is an issue, Web-based data loss is a bigger issue, because in the latter case, users won't necessarily know where the data are located, and the number of possible failure modes is higher. > Do you know how many horror stories there are of data loss that occurred because of things like bad RAID setup. I can't believe you even posted this argument. How does an unreliable cloud RAID array constitute an improvement over an unreliable infrastructure RAID array? I haven't even mentioned the legal issues, where law enforcement has a much easier time subpoenaing evidence from the cloud, compared to legally acquiring from your local network. http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/12/cloud-computing-enterprise-technology-cio-network-legal.html http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/12/cloud-computing-enterprise-... A quote: "Enterprises are moving their assets to the cloud to capture its many business benefits, including ease of deployment and reducing, if not eliminating, the need for IT infrastructure. However, cloud computing offers an array of pitfalls for the unwary. The unique legal risks and considerations presented by the cloud are especially important and often overlooked by nonlawyers." The article goes on to list five very serious and often overlooked legal pitfalls of cloud computing.
- 14y ago

lutusp 14y ago

> First things first, web-based doesn't imply cloud-based. True, but there are few applications that reside in a browser that don't use cloud-based storage for the results. One may safely refer to Web-based and cloud-based technologies in a single breath. >> Why do you think the big players in cloud-based and Web-based storage and applications are having such a hard time getting people to adopt them? > That is absolutely false. No, it's true, and you need to do impartial research before making this sort of claim. The big players are having a hard time getting people to adopt cloud-based and Web-based technologies, and I already gave the reasons. http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/its-cloud-resistance-starting-annoy-businesses-383 http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/its-cloud-resista... A quote: "Accenture and the LSE surveyed more than 1,035 business and IT executives and conducted more than 35 interviews with cloud providers, system integrators, and cloud service users. The key finding: There's a gap between business and IT. Businesspeople see the excitement and business benefits of cloud computing, so they're pushing for it. However, IT people see cloud computing as causing issues with security and lock-in, so they're pushing back." > And how are you immune to this when YOU are responsible for managing your backup strategy and maintain your servers. This is a non-argument fort an obvious reason -- if infrastructure data loss is an issue, Web-based data loss is a bigger issue, because in the latter case, users won't necessarily know where the data are located, and the number of possible failure modes is higher. > Do you know how many horror stories there are of data loss that occurred because of things like bad RAID setup. I can't believe you even posted this argument. How does an unreliable cloud RAID array constitute an improvement over an unreliable infrastructure RAID array? I haven't even mentioned the legal issues, where law enforcement has a much easier time subpoenaing evidence from the cloud, compared to legally acquiring from your local network. http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/12/cloud-computing-enterprise-technology-cio-network-legal.html http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/12/cloud-computing-enterprise-... A quote: "Enterprises are moving their assets to the cloud to capture its many business benefits, including ease of deployment and reducing, if not eliminating, the need for IT infrastructure. However, cloud computing offers an array of pitfalls for the unwary. The unique legal risks and considerations presented by the cloud are especially important and often overlooked by nonlawyers." The article goes on to list five very serious and often overlooked legal pitfalls of cloud computing.

14y ago