Cloud Computing

Overcoming disadvantages of Cloud Computing (CC) is not going to be easy.  In today’s society, any user wants to use the quickest way to express his/her thoughts to the recipient, be it for business or personal reasons.  The intention of CC is to provide software and storage related services through the Web 1.0/2.0.  Total use of CC would eliminate all physical devices used for IS with the exception of the display unit as long as there is access to internet.  Therefore, basically, if we had the Apple iPad with 3G service, we could conduct any IS related transaction.  The internet provides us wealth of products to use for CC.  We have used the software service, Zoho, and the storage service of GMAIL for our advantages.  CC involves massive amount of storage capacity, beyond Exabyte or may be more, for the Cloud Service Provider (CSP).      

However, as Peter Parker’s uncle said, “with great power comes great responsibility.”   Every user is depended on the services of CC with a lot of trust.  So, when it fails, there is substantial amount of data to recover.   

First, if we can’t access the internet, we can’t get our data.  If we can’t access the data, we can’t work with it.   And we have no idea as to where the information is stored, and how to retrieve it. So,“Companies like SugarSync backs up key folders you select to the Web and synchronizes them to the hard disks on your PCs or Macs, so you always have the freshest copies handy, whether you have a connection or not.”¹  And even if we didn’t have the hard copy to our data, the data is ours, service providers.  ““As a customer, you should always continue to own all data that you put into the cloud, but that the service provider would need to own the intellectual property (IP) that runs the cloud itself,” he said. “In other words, the service provider has built a cloud solution, and they need to own that solution and all enhancements they make to it, but you should always own your data,” he added.”²

The second most concern users have is the security of the data.  “One thing you can do, said Schin, is to make sure that your service provider has programmatic access to your data as opposed to human access.”³  In simple terms, if a computer backs up your data, there are less chances of hacking than a person running the back-up because they won’t have access to it.  And make sure the browser you access has a lock on it.

And lastly, if we are not happy with one service provider, we can easily transfer all the data to another service provider.  Many large IT companies are offering CC services.  “Among the top 30 CSP are: http://aws.amazon.com/, http://www.salesforce.com/,  http://www.ibm.com/ibm/cloud/ and  http://www.3tera.com/ .”⁴   SunGard, the service provider for Ramapo College is a disaster recovery specialist who has ventured into CC.  "Finding the right cloud starts with you," advised Carl Meadows, director of managed services product management at SunGard. "The cloud is not one thing. There are many clouds. Every business' needs in the cloud are not the same."⁵  So, pick a cloud that you like.  If you are not comfortable with all the information in it, than keep for yourself until you are ready.

      

1.     1.  Learning about Everything Under the ‘Cloud’, Walter S. Mossberg, WSJ.com, May 6, 2010, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703961104575226194192477512.html

2.       2. & 3.  Don’t let Service Provider Rain on Your Cloud, Sukanya Mitra, CPA2Biz.com, June 27, 2011, http://www.cpa2biz.com/Content/media/PRODUCER_CONTENT/Newsletters/Articles_2011/CPA/Jun/ServiceProviders.jsp

4.       4.  Top 30 Cloud Service Providers Gaining Mind Share in 3Q 2010, Ray Depena, Cloud Computing Journal, Aug. 19, 2010, http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/1513491

5.       5. Tough Questions To Ask Cloud Service Providers, Charles Babcock, InformationWeek.com, May 13, 2011, http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/229500608