Blog Can you trust the cloud in a crisis?

[menotu]

By Davey Winder, 19 Dec 2012

The cloud is about more than just data storage and 'anytime/anywhere' file access. It's also increasingly being used as an enterprise disaster recovery tool. The question is, though, can you really trust the cloud in a crisis?

The cloud is not, despite the claims of many who should know better, anything new. As a concept it has been around for what seems like forever, and some of us have been quite happily using what are referred to as 'in the cloud' applications for many, many years now.

However, like any technology which finds itself thrust into the business and media limelight, the cloud has become both a nay saying punching bag and bringer of budgetary miracles.

Security is at the very top of the punch bag list, with the oft-repeated claim that you cannot trust the cloud with your data. Like many oft-repeated claims, this one is not actually based in fact. Data can be as secure in the cloud as anywhere. Indeed, as with most things, the devil as always is in the detail. But, with increasing numbers of folk looking for inexpensive and quick to setup disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity systems, perhaps what we should really be asking is if the cloud can be trusted in a crisis.

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[weirdwolf]

First let me say this, To me "cloud computing" just sounds stupid and I've never liked the sound of it. "Clouds" (or more precisely what strikes out of them) kill a good number of people every year.
Next, as much as I don't like it I can see it being useful for anything you need to share with a lot or even a small amount of people, as a number of people here like to share "stuff" (pics, music, whatnot) and I think it works well for that purpose, same for the average e-mail account. I suppose it's even a better than nothing plan for personal backups if you need more room than a couple 8-16 gig flash drives (all my "stoof" is on 2 8gig flash drives with a good bit of room to spare) and don't want to buy a dedicated "backup" drive for that (my choice if I needed one : ioSafe SOLO G3 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive that's Fireproof/Waterproof).
Now to answer the question "Can you trust the cloud in a crisis?"
In my possibly somewhat biased opinion, No. Actually not just No, but Oh hell No.
(unless you have a backup of your backup )
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/09/atlassian_cloud_storage_outage/

I'm guessing they might agree with that. (they're not the only ones I'm guessing)
 

[joechimp]

The cloud is sort of like this.

You all of a sudden decide to keep all your money in your neighbors garage.

You could keep it in your own home. Protect it. Maybe in a box or under your mattress , a safe, etc.
But heck, why not let your neighbor care for it. You really don't know him but he assures you your money will be safe. That sounds good enough for you. He opens a box for you and you place your money in it. He tapes up the box and now you feel secure. Your money is protected in your neighbors garage in a box wrapped in tape. How could you not feel comfortable with that?

So to rationalize this you decide that your money could never be safe in your house but it has to be safe in a strangers house. How could anyone break into your neighbors garage and steal your money. It's in a box with tape around it.

[YouCanToo]

Simple answer.............. NO!

[Linux-Blue]

Even if it's secure, and has that guarantee that they won't peek, I don't trust it. Any hacker could get into it.
I use Amazon cloud/mp3 for music ONLY. Nothing else.

Me personally, I like keeping my data right in my own house.

[YouCanToo]

Even if it's secure, and has that guarantee that they won't peek, I don't trust it. Any hacker could get into it.
I use Amazon cloud/mp3 for music ONLY. Nothing else.

Me personally, I like keeping my data right in my own house.

I remember another company not to long ago said that their service was encrypted and no one could see anything..... long story shot, it was found out that they could look at things. Another words they lied!

[Linux-Blue]

music to me isn't personal in the sense of letters, pictures of your family, videos, etc..

Didn't that google cloud whatever get caught peeking?

[craesz]

This is why I am waiting for Owncloud to give us a linux client. 

[YouCanToo]

This is why I am waiting for Owncloud to give us a linux client. 

There are clients for owncloud for redhat and the big ugly brown distro. It appears that one need to be built for use, but since I don't have the knowledge to do that, someone smarter then I will have to.