cloud computing critics

C3 - cloud computing critics. A few common comments about cloud computing and some follow up questions.

1. Steve Jobs, Apple - Interface, ease of use, design require a combination approach to deliver ease of use and convenience and power.

Who can argue with Steve. He is right. Just look at the best iPhone Apps and you know why not all applications will be located in the cloud. Of course, they may be largely dependent on the cloud, and optionally available as a download, more so that a lot of applications are today.

The $30 million dollars in revenue and 60 million downloads of iPhone Apps in the first month also goes to illustrate this point - and one around monetizing content and applications as well.

2. bjbrock, ZDNet Reader - What about when the cloud goes down (or if you are not always connected)?

I agree. However this is not just a cloud computing problem. How many times have you had to admit that your file is on another computer/computing device at home, work or in the car. This is a problem that the cloud will solve not create. 

Sync will continue to be one of the most important applications for a lot of us. We will continue to need local drive space and more great sync applications. There is a lot of work to be done here. Get it right and win the next round of technology - the one on the way to ubiquitous cloud computing.

3. Jason Hoffman, Joyent Inc. - Friendly clouds with open standards.

I agree. I don't want my stuff locked into some crazy language or development environment - like it has always been in the past! Maybe we can get this right this time. Again, not a cloud problem, just a contracting and legal issue. Nothing licencing, service level agreement and escrow haven't attempted to solve in the past.

4. Joe Blow Hacker - What about when the cloud is hacked?

What about it? Same solution as always redundancy - no? Isn't the notion of using the cloud (yes, there is more than one cloud and a few rainbows too) for this redundancy better than trying to staff up to secure multiple corporate data centres?

5. George Bush - No privacy in the cloud.

Legitimate, there are some people that need to worry about this more than others. Shrouding yourself with people you can trust, or whom you have bought trust, is a legitimate need - just not for every company, person, or maybe even government.

Oh yeah, and due to the way some governments behave, probably best if a country (or 2) establishes itself as a data Switzerland. I need somebody I can trust to not let another government I can't trust store my purchase of a Noam Chomsky book online out of paranoid eyes.

6. All two year olds - Mine. Mine. Mine.

This one is funny. "I would not trust my data to be stored off site." "I can't trust company x with my intellectual property." "Look at the past history of security over the net. How many hundred million people (literally) have had their data exposed and/or stolen?" 

This argument is hard for me to understand. Maybe somebody can help. Businesses trust their intellectual property to travel over networks of highways, trains, fibre optics, twisted copper, wireless, and so on. They take measures to protect, secure, lock, encrypt, this data. What is different about networked drives and applications? You take the same precautions and you end up with the same problems - right? Or can somebody affirm that the problems are worse or that precautions are not possible?

So give up on the "mine, mine, mine" argument, ask the UN to create a data safe haven, assume redundancy, get really friendly or build really good fences, think sync (thynk sink), and build beautiful, functional things that can be monetized. If you are anything like me you will start with the two latter items.