Hive Blog

Cloud computing is the new buzz word of the day. Some, like Oracle’s CEO, are claiming that it’s just a new buzz word for what is already being done in the computer industry while others, like Dell and Google, think it’s the way of the future. Microsoft wants to own it or kill it as it threatens their operating system dominance. Still others, like Richard Stallman (founder of GNU), would like to put on a placard and ring a bell warning the world of the dangers of cloud computing, much like a delusional person proclaiming the end is near on the street corner. In this case, they might all be right.

If you aren’t familiar with the term cloud computing, it is the concept of storing and managing your data “out there”, i.e. in the cloud that is the Internet. Whenever us ‘ techies’ represent the Internet, it is always depicted as a big cloud, hence, cloud computing invokes the appropriate symbolism of your data and information being out there in that cloud.

The cloud is both a thing of beauty and concern.

First, let’s address the beauty of cloud computing. With cloud computing you can access your data anywhere at anytime on the Internet. The location of your computer is not important and all your data is typically stored in a well managed system with plenty of backups. You don’t have to worry about your hard disk crashing or some kind of hijacking of your system deleting all your files. Plus, you get the economy of scale. A service offering can be cheaper since the system is running with thousands of concurrent users all on the same specially designed system. One of the best features of cloud computing is the ability to share files and information with other users.

Now, let’s address the drawbacks as they are plentiful. While not everyone might agree with Richard Stallman’s political and free software views, he does have a point when he warns, “It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: it’s a marketing hype campaign.”

Stallman warns of the dangers of cloud computing, including being locked into closed proprietary systems. Companies have been battling against having their information locked into proprietary systems for years. Now that the cloud holds all the information, the data is inaccessible to the end user unless the holder of the information provides an export, transfer or backup service to get the data out. Most would never want to release your data as that would make it all too easy to move to a competitor and obviously, that’s not in their best interest. Eventually, proprietary locked- in sites will change their attitude as competitors will use openness as a competitive edge against those who would hoard the information.

Some systems like Gmail provide POP3/SMTP backup of email. If you can get all your emails out of Google’s system, it basically means they aren’t a closed system, right? Wrong! Gmail offers “meta” information that allows users to organize and sort emails accordingly, most importantly with tags. If you export your Gmail account, you have your raw emails but you lose the meta information. The organization makes the data useful and valuable however, without it, the information is unmanageable.

The entire trust issue is something that is far more concerning. When you entrust your data to the cloud, you have to rely on blind faith that those holding the data will not mine your information, sell it or do even worse things with it. Fortunately, most businesses tend to behave honestly as they know the consequence of dishonesty would be financial ruin if they were to be exposed. However, that’s not entirely the full scope of the threat.

Remember the good ol’ Wild West movies? You had two choices in those days, stuff your money into your mattress or put it into the bank. If you put it into a mattress and someone found out, then your money was gone in less time than it took you to recover from the heartburn of last night’s bean burrito!  If that money was pooled into a bank with everyone else’s, then out came Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. When Willie Sutton was asked to explain why he robbed banks, he provided the simple answer, “Because that’s where the money is.” This analogy rings true of your information; if all the data is located in one spot with everyone else’s, it invites thieves and criminals.

An assumption should be made however. If you concentrate valuable information from many users into a central spot accessible via the Internet, someone will take the time to hack the information. Granted, most of the threat that your personal data faces is on your own machine, given the amount of malware that exists that targets the desktop. Fortunately, most desktop hackers aren’t interested in stealing information or boring emails. The information from a single person is much less valuable than concentrating all that confidential information into a single service where thousands of users hold their data. Some of that data no doubt, will be highly valuable. They tend to turn desktop computers into spam relays, attack relays or porn servers of the extremely non-legal kind!

If hackers aren’t scary enough for the paranoid, there is the threat of government who can legislate your data into their hands. At least when the FBI ransacks your house, they give you a warrant, but with your data in the cloud you may never even know you’ve been taken.

Finally, you have the denial of service threat where you can’t get access to your data. This can come in many forms including a coordinated attack, an accidental system error, or even an account closure because someone at a company decides you aren’t conforming to the terms of service as they see it. Good luck getting your account  reopened.

With so many threats, does that mean that cloud computing is dead on arrival? Oh heck no! For many, they just don’t see the data they are putting into these systems as being all that valuable. Many users just don’t care enough to bother. I would even say that most of the data wouldn’t be worth hacking if someone even bothered.

It’s all a matter of how important the data is and whom you trust to hold it.