Cloud Computing is the latest attempt to funnel the consumer into a controlled environment where by continual fees can be charged and Piracy is no longer an issue. Everyone seems to win except for those with little money but the open systems help there. With SOPA maybe it is time to think about protecting local businesses from being side swiped by politicians.
What is of more concern though is the blind acceptance that Cloud Computing is a good thing. Services themselves are the way of the future and hopefully we will not go back but combining this with the consolidation of data and functionality is very dangerous if you do not understand the ramifications.
Here are some of the risks.
1. Reliability – even though companies tout their backups and economies of scale (which is true) the fact remains if the firm fails for any reason, financial, cyber attack etc your ability to function is compromised and unless you have a business continuity plan that takes this into account you could be out of business.
a. Cloud groups are bigger targets – anyone wanting to cause damage can certainly affect more people.
b. Do you ever really understand the firm’s financial stability – you know your own.
2. Uniformity also comes with compromise – software may not have the same level of features that you need and the commonness provides economies of scale for the intruder.
3. American Law as shown by SOPA is a huge risk to your privacy. If you use a service hosted by an American firm they follow US law which can and will impact you. You also have to be careful that you are not breaking local laws by using these services.
4. Audit and Recovery. Using these services will tend to shift responsibility to others and the out of sight out of mind adage kicks in. If you use these services do you really have the ability to restore information to a level that an auditor would want or for your own research?
5. Many of us use email systems such as Yahoo and Gmail in which we depend on these firms to keep our mail private even though we know that any government can access the information if they want to. With Cloud computing you have now just handed over your entire business.
With these risks comes opportunity – opportunity to offer localized services that promote the fact that local laws are followed and that data does not leave a country. Industry specific services provide even more value add with more of the revenue staying in country.
