Home Forums FineTunedMac Community Lounge Arguments against the cloud

I don't know if I'll ever trust putting my data in the cloud, as it is known. For my purposes, I still don't see how it is preferable to keeping an external drive in a drawer

Here is an interesting bit of an article from PCMag.

Arguments Against the Cloud

The cloud does one thing that no disk drive in a drawer or safe deposit box could possibly do — almost instantaneously share my data between my desktop, my wife's desktop, my iPhone, my wife's iPhone, my iPad, and her iPad no matter where they are located around the globe. Even better the device I am sharing the data with does not even have to be turned on when the data is shared, but it will be there when I need it. I make use of that shared data several times a day on the average.

Carrying an iPhone or iPad is far more convenient than carrying a laptop. In fact I no longer own a laptop because almost everything I used it for can now be performed on the much more portable iPad if not the ubiquitous iPhone which is always in my pocket. iCloud is more than just a data storage service that the cloud storage provided by third party users. It is the superstructure that knits OS X and iOS devices into a single common computing environment.

I can't bring myself to trust the cloud. Who backs up the cloud? How secure is the cloud?

If I travelled a lot, maybe I could see a use. But I don't have enough data that I couldn't carry it all with me. Maybe companies can use it where all documents are available to all staff at the same time whilst on the road?

Security and loss are my biggest concerns. Mainly, I don't need a cloud.

And, Adobe's cloud-based apps have put me off it forever.

Yes, if you need your data anywhere all the time, the cloud is a solution.

Given the mobility of today's workforce, which I probably underestimate, I can see why it would work and make a great deal of money for some. I guess cloud computing, perhaps another name for the internet, is global. I'm astonished to live in a time when people can live in one country while working on their laptop for a company in another country, and then retrieve that data on an iPhone while on the beach. I've seen this phenomenon on TV on the househunter international show. Such a person could live anywhere and work for anyone. No borders, no boundaries.

Geez, the consequences…

More like, "Geez, the possibilities…"

More like "Geez, the insidious possibilities..."

There are several different ways to use "the cloud." How good an idea it is depends on what you use it for.

You can use the cloud to move files around, in which case it's as good as any other technique. Even if it's not backed up, so what? You're only using it temporarily, to transfer files from place to place or keep files synced. You still have the master files somewhere, presumably.

As a backup, the cloud sucks. It's unreliable, it's slow, it's prone to errors, and if your only copy of a file is in the cloud, well, you're basically borrowing from fate.

As an off-site backup that's there for disaster recovery, it works better. If you keep a backup on a hard drive in a drawer AND in the cloud, which is what I do for important files, you're protected if your house burns down and takes your computer (and your backup drive) with it. The weakness of a backup in the same physical place as the original is it means a physical disaster can wipe out both. If the cloud copy is stored hundreds or even thousands of miles away, it would take a civilization-ending calamity to get all your backups, in which case you're probably not all that concerned about the data as you have other problems to deal with.

I just realized I use the cloud. I assume Dropbox is a brand name for the cloud?
I have copies of important documents in a security-coded zipped file on Dropbox. And I use it for file transfer – anything too large to email.

Gosh, I have embraced The Cloud!