Comments on: Will The Cloud Make My Loaded Computer Obsolete? In Many Cases, Probably

By: DOA

DOA — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:35:25 +0000

My company upgraded to gigabit ethernet and cloud computing.
Our computing experience with Dell thin clients has been very poor. The time lost by each user has cost many times the savings in hardware of the cloud/thin client model. Cloud computing requires tremendous bandwidth and gigabit is not cutting it for our 25 users on the test model.
Cloud computing has the exact same trouble mainframes have and needs to considered in that light. Great storage and stability, but the wrong model for day to day letters, spreadsheets and email.

By: Aunty Dan

Aunty Dan — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:03:51 +0000

One negative of Cloud computing not mentioned here is what happens if the cloud-based service you use simply disappears because the company has failed. The more use is made of Cloud computing the more costs will increase as service suppliers compete for limited resources. With most of these services being offered at no-cost or low-cost to generate market share I fear a bubble followed by a bust is coming in this market. When you wake up to find your online data is no longer available you better hope you have a local backup.

The other inevitable result of the sudden expansion is some of these small companies will get taken over by bigger ones. (E.G. Google purchase of Postini) When this happens these bigger companies will get to re-write the service and privacy agreements you never read in the first place when you click “OK”. You may find your data is intact but you have no choice but to pay for a service that was previously free if you ever want to see it again.

By: Aankhen

Aankhen — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:18:51 +0000

Interesting article. For my part, I am not really a fan of cloud computing, for a few reasons.

I’m not in a country where the Internet is far from ubiquitous, and that makes it hard for me to ignore the “must be
connected” side of it. I’m on vacation, away from an Internet connection, for at least eight weeks out of the year (in
total). During that time, at most, I have access to a cyber café for an hour a day. I suppose the offline tools do offset
that a fair bit, as long as you have that regular bit of access to sync up.

I’m not entirely comfortable with having all my data reside on some company’s servers, because of both security and availability. The security question is somewhat mitigated by encryption; the availability issue is another matter. Obviously no one can offer you 100% availability, but when even Amazon and Google have large-scale, prolonged downtime, it’s a bit worrying.

Despite those two things, I’m going to end up entrusting parts of my critical data to the cloud, as I think most people will, because ultimately the advantages do outweigh the disadvantages. In my case it’s going to be a mirror of my primary storage location: my own disks (rather than the other way around).

One (meta-)question: why is it that in a blog entry about the cloud you spell out addresses for everything mentioned, so we have to copy and paste them rather than just clicking on a hyperlink? It’s not a big deal, it just seemed really strange.

By: Don Crossland

Don Crossland — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:00:28 +0000

Much like the newcomer, Egnyte, Nomadesk is a virtual file server that offers secure, easy to use access to files online and offline. They offer unlimited storage for backing up and many different sharing and collaboration options. Mobile access is available via iPhone or other smartphone. Nomadesk has been around for over 5 years and I trust that my important data will always be available to me.

By: colton

colton — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:05:42 +0000

I read your column on cloud computing and thought it was great. Egnyte is an on demand file server for small business and professionals that has been a top choice for a variety of industries. Egnyte has exceeded other cloud companies in my opinion taking it a step further by offering a local cloud for off line access, iphone and netbook access and a very easy interface. I encourage you to do a follow up on this column and take a look at egnyte.