I don't think that having your data on servers and storage that "physically lives at the same place you do" and, I'll add, that you own, is a small thing. If nothing else, legally, it's a very big thing.
There was an article in the ISSA Journal about this a few months ago I think. I do think things are heading in that direction, but I don't think it's just the next step. There are some real differences here. ________________________________________ From: general-boun...@brlug.net [mailto:general-boun...@brlug.net] On Behalf Of Tim Fournet Sent: Monday, July 13, 2009 12:06 PM To: general@brlug.net Subject: Re: [brlug-general] Not everybody thingks that Chrome OS is goingtobe all that great.. If your computer is already on the internet, then your data is already in the "cloud". Your trusting it to be secure just because it physically lives at the same place you do? Many of us use VPNs or SSL to get to data stored at remote facilities every day. Renting space or computing resources somewhere else is just a logical advancement of that idea. The benefit is your are able to take advantage of someone else's economies of scale to bring down the costs of running your own business. Consider this scenario: 10 companies. Each of these companies has two sites. They have decided to install a Small Business Server at each site because their local IT consultant told them so. Each server ran them somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000 including software, licenses, and hardware. Since each site is running their own Exchange (SBS) Server, they must keep power and cooling active 24/7. They also need to dedicate a secure location in their buildings with adequate power and cooling to run a server. Total investment between all of these companies is at least $100,000 plus recurring costs of electricity and cooling for 20 facilities. Do these sites need guaranteed uptime? Battery Backups, Generators, etc? Those cost a lot. What is the average utilization of each server? They're basically all doing the same thing. They require a lot of computing resources because they are running Windows, Exchange, and all the other "features" of SBS. If you were running all of this out of one facility, how much equipment would it really take to run it? Maybe $20,000 worth? How many sets of air conditioners need to run? One (two for redundancy)? What about expertise? Each company would need to hire an IT consultant to manage all of these servers. If they were consolidated, then it would only take one team to manage this. That is the real benefit of "cloud" computing. Once you understand the technology and build a layer of trust between yourself and your provider, then it makes sense. You are allowing an organization that has its own resources and expertise to handle the job of data storage and access, and you focus on your real work. If you understand the nature of data then you know that you can make your own backups if you don't trust your provider not to lose your data. Your backups won't be as "available" but you'll have the data available if it ever came to that. On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 8:41 AM, Jarred White <jwh...@pncpa.com> wrote: **Additionally, I abhor the idea of me not owning the location where my data is stored. How is that good for me as a business? Sorry I'm late to the party :) You said it. The security implications about something like this really bother me. I have to be a lot more confident about the security of my transport protocols and the level of trust between other systems I communicate with before I feel okay with storing apps and other data out there in "the cloud." Can you guys imagine having a Citrix environment located out there on the public Internet? :P Having said that, I'm interested to see where this goes. Things like the new Palm Pre operating system and Moblin really intrigue me, and while I think they're most certainly the future of portable devices, I'm not so sure how I feel about desktop computing heading in that direction. Brad - don't lie, you know you use IE because you love it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pursuant to IRS Circular 230 and IRS regulations we inform you that any federal tax advice contained in this communication is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties imposed under the Internal Revenue Code. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Postlethwaite & Netterville Implements New Email Encryption Software to Further Protect Confidential Data Confidentiality is a hallmark of the accounting profession and it is of the utmost importance to our client relationships. At P&N, we are committed to keeping your data confidential which is why we are implementing new email encryption software. This software inspects all outbound emails from our firm. 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