[Discuss] Amusing turn of phrase

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On 08/20/2012 01:22 AM, David Kramer wrote:
> On 08/19/2012 09:23 PM, Rich Pieri wrote:
>> A friend of mine groused about OnLive's layoff meeting and about the
>> trustworthiness of cloud providers.  To which I responded:
>>
>>> Client-server computing, aka thin-client computing: a computing model
>>> where your data resides on, and applications run on, servers that you
>>> (or your school or employer or whatever) own, control and maintain.
>>>
>>> Cloud computing: client-server computing where you give to a total
>>> stranger your checkbook and credit cards, the keys to your house and,
>>> if you're really gung-ho about it, custody of your children
> I feel the same way about it.  I am "the IT department" for the
> not-for-profit Agile New England, and I often have to fight the battle
> against "just throw it in the cloud" and keeping everything on our
> server.  So far we've had at least three cases where we relied on free
> services of some other company that either went out of business, changed
> their policies in a way that no longer fit our needs, and/or did not
> offer a way to extract/back up data.  I have a friend in the field and
> we simply can't talk about work because I think she's just promising
> silver bullets to stupid managers.
>
> The original concept touted as "cloud computing" (the concept wasn't
> new, just the name) was there would be ubiquitous, commoditized services
> that would run data processing jobs on a scalable number of cores/boxes,
> and if the vendor pissed you off or changed policies, you take your work
> elsewhere.  As far as I know, no standard has ever developed, so there's
> a lot of work involved in leaving one cloud computing service and going
> to another.  It's just another vendor lock-in opportunity where the
> means of your production are completely out of your control.
>
> What's worse is the marketdroids now use that term for any
> internet-based service, even if it's running their software not yours.
> SOA is now rebadged as Cloud because it's a word the CEOs have heard
> recently and think they understand.
>
> This is a part of the industry I'm not fond of.
In essence "Cloud Computing" is mainframe computing by a different name.
And, agreeing with Richard's definitions. There are advantages and
disadvantages of cloud-computing. But, a few additional disadvantages,
are (1) the government has the right to look at data in the cloud.
Secondly, the cloud provider could go belly up, and you could lose your
data. Take an example of a parking garage that goes bankrupt when your
car is there. You then have to prove to the court that the car belongs
to you not the parking garage owner. Worse with a cloud where you could
lose access to your data. Look at MegaUpload. So, whenever you use a
cloud take a look at who is operating the cloud. One advantage of a
properly maintained cloud is that (1) the data is backed up and (2) the
cloud servers reside in different physical locations. So, you don't have
to worry about HD failures.

Dave and I had some big discussions when I bought my first Android and
he bought his iPhone. Most everything on the Android is in the cloud
(Google's cloud mostly).

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
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