The cloud concept is interesting. I do wonder about the long term security of data stored on various proprietary services. After all, it's a pain to transfer my data stored on this computer to another computer, but supposed Google goes bankrupt tomorrow. Who gets my GoogleDocs? Where do they go?
At work, we're using Google calendar, which is an example of cloud computing. Calendar functions are normally run by software on the desktop. We can access our calendar anywhere, even from home when calling in sick. We even track room usage with it. It has been a useful way of sharing information, although it's not as customizable or reliable as we would prefer. As an example of the lack of reliability, we had accounts set up for all staff. Then one day, with no notification, Google combined one employee's gmail account with her work account. All her personal appointments now showed up in the work calendar. We didn't ask for them to be combined, there was no way to separate them, and of course, trying to contact Google for help is fairly futile. In the end, we deleted her work account and reinstated it, but it cost me half a day of troubleshooting. I suppose that software on the desktop could have had similar problems, but then I would have had technical support from IT and the software maker.
Incidents like these, which have happened in other cloud computing situations I've used, make me wonder. There's a lot of data, particularly financial information, that I wouldn't feel comfortable using on websites like Mint.
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