[ngw] Cloud Mentality - I disagree

[Gregg A. Hinchman]

Sorry for the delayed reply to this thread. My internet connection was down.

While Richards points are valid and I agree there is a time/place for 'cloud' I do not find it to be THE answer -as all are touting these days.  Its a great 'concept' and a great idea from a DR perspective but...if I run with the 911 example -companies that lost data there were not following proper DR procedures.  Since I have been in this biz, the DR procedures have been basically the same.  Backup data -store data offsite. Then came secondary data centers and clustering.  So if you look at where DR is today its: immediate access to data if a failure -clustering, near immediate access of data via secondary sites and near/offline storage of data -off site somewhere.

If I was a DR company that touted 'cloud' like Google -and Yale asked me where my data would be stored -I would not want to answer them either. Why? Because its called 'Secure Storage'.  The more people that know the sites the more opportunity to target the sites or the resources needed to run the sites.  Plus I am sure they have a algorithm for the data location of a sort.

A while back I did work for a company that decided to pull all data into a secure storage area. Nice place, complete with redundant electric, HVAC and multiple levels of security access -ID to get into the building, hand print to access the security ring near the data center and an ever changing keypad number to get into the data center. Once in the data center -there were cameras and tons of servers -but not just their servers -many different companies servers -lock in server cabinet -but still possible to pull plugs and such.  The location of the data center -which I will not mention was good from a complete Actuary point of view for natural disasters.  But, it was near a major interstate that had such things are chemical trucks running by and I believe -though I might be mistaken- there was a rail way in a distance from it. So nearly anything 'could' happen.  And it was not a redundant site -so hit the site and you take it all out.  But they were still at the mercy of those digging near lines.

Point: Cloud is great but its not the answer and never will be.  In 10 years or less, there will be a move back as some new tech comes into play or as lack of secure data is proven.

Joe: Did you forget Blackberry!? That's the prime example of 'cloud' -all data from any BB device runs through the companies sites. How many outages a year do they have? How long and how much business slow down/loss is there because of it?

Richard: Freq. Flier miles. Absolutely these have privacy concerns. But they are very limited. One, a credit card company has secure/monitor services -which I have experienced nearly quarterly.  There are authorization codes to access your points and while they can indeed track you and those your with, I have no reason to worry about that...unless someone is after me in which case I'd be using 'other means' of ID.  So, the FF miles idea while good to spread a point -is very minimal in its affect.  But your points are appreciated.



Take Care.
 
Gregg A. Hinchman 
Consultant
Gregg at HinchmanConsulting.com 
www.HinchmanConsulting.com
A Novell Consulting Partner
317.329.0288 Office
413.254.2819 eFax

"Courage is doing what is right." 

"Do not be bound to any doctrine, theory or ideology, even Buddhist ones. All systems of thought are guiding means, not absolute truth."  Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese monk.

Book Travel @: www.booknewtravelnow.com


>>> 
From: Joseph Marton<jmmarton at gmail.com>
To:ngw at ngwlist.com
Date: 4/23/2010 8:50 AM
Subject: Re: [ngw] Cloud Mentality - I disagree
Ding ding ding... you got it.


Joe


On Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 7:33 AM, Steve Bogdanski <bogdansk at cvm.msu.edu> wrote:

Until security and communication infrastructure improve I still think that cloud services are best for commodity processing (especially on a temporary demand basis) and for those without the money, or resources, to run their IT infrastructure internally.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://ngwlist.com/pipermail/ngw/attachments/20100424/a9c1cafc/attachment.html