And this, is exactly the problem with the whole cloud technology: my Time Warner connection is down. I’m posting this with 3G from an iPhone.
The idea of having all my stuff on a cloud that I may or may not be able to connect to – that is a crazy thing.
Here I am with my fast connection down, but I can still work on all the images and documents that are stored on my mac. And they are backed up onto hard drives as well, and some even on DVDs.
Now, if you want to talk about the use of the techno-cloud for non-mission critical purposes, such as – duh – backup. That’s another story. Make sure that you have an excellent up- and down- speed to the cloud because if you do have to do a total restore, uhm – figure out how long that will take.
Also, the idea that your applications are on the cloud as well: this is still lunacy, in my not so humble point-of-view. Lunacy. Unless you are using applications that you don’t really need. Then you may as well store them anywhere, like on your own computer.
Do you think that the cloud is some magical place (it sounds like it) beyond the laws of physics, that is to say beyond the laws of drives and networks? Do you think that the cloud is somewhere over the rainbow?
I’m afraid that it is subject to the same laws, especially those of complex systems that often go out of control.
I will give you another example. I am not perfect in my predictions. A few years ago, I signed up for AWS (the Amazon Web Service). Now after loading a few things that amounted to a bill of about 50 cents a month, and seeing how long it took to upload, and then forgetting that I had those things up there on the cloud, I forgot about them and every once in a while noticed the 50 cent charge on my credit card, until my credit card happened to expire.
I wrote to AWS a few times asking to have my account canceled but never received an answer and then began to get emails saying that my account was in danger of being closed because my credit card had expired.
Good, I said. Close it. I wrote back, telling them to close it. But now I am on the automated cloud finance app, and it is sending me emails every second day telling me that my account is past due and unless I pay them the fifty cents they will be forced to close my account.
Of course, they also never do close the account, or even cancel. it. And I don’t want to give them a new credit card because somewhere, deep down, I’m curious to see what happens. Also, if I give them my credit card, who knows what the crazy cloud machine will do.
On top of that – what cloud is smart enough to look at the balance of fifty cents and figure out that it is may reach a point where it simply is not worth sending emails to this deadbeat and actually close the account? Not a cloud in the sky knows how to deal with this, and I suppose that also gives me some perverse pleasure.
