A Cloudy Future (Why are Microsoft, EMC, CA and others touting "The Cloud" as a breakthrough)

American Thinker ^ | 01/10/2011 | Andrew Thomas

[SeekAndFind]

I've always considered my wife a little paranoid about her privacy.  Although she has never done anything illegal or immoral, she sometimes acts as though the world is out to get her.  To avoid leaving an electronic trail, she pays for everything in cash as much as possible and has, until recently, refrained from conducting any online financial transactions. 

I, on the other hand, have been somewhat cavalier about protecting my privacy, believing there is safety in numbers.  After all, out of some three hundred million folks in this country, what are the odds that I would be a target for something nefarious?  Cyberspace is just too vast and ubiquitous.  At least that's how I have perceived it up until now.

Then I read Friday's Wall Street Journal.  Inside was a full five page "Special Advertising Section" sponsored by a consortium of companies, including Microsoft.  Two articles were featured, "15 Ways the Cloud Will Change Our Lives" and "Creativity in the Cloud."  I am always skeptical of any advertising that tries to tell me how wonderful life will be once I use their product, but I become very concerned when they tell me that I will have no choice in the matter.  "The Cloud" is such a product that activates my spider sense.

Don't misunderstand my concerns.  I'm not a technophobe.  Technological advancements are greatly improving our lives every day.  But can we trust the people who control the technology?  Any technological breakthrough that is intended for the betterment of mankind can also be subverted for evil purposes.  I have been distrustful of Bill Gates ever since he proclaimed his desire to de-populate the world using vaccines.

Now Microsoft and other companies such as EMC and CA Technologies are touting "The Cloud" as a breakthrough that will change our lives forever (whether we like it or not).  Desktop computers are obsolete.  Internal data storage will no longer be needed, as all of your personal information will be accessed through a sea of hundreds of thousands of remote servers using a handheld i-pad or i-phone.  Data can be instantly assembled from multiple sources to develop a research project or a profile of you as an individual.  How could anything go wrong?

The Journal ad quotes John Hagel, co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge, Deloitte's Silicon Valley-based research center:

The need for guidance will spawn new companies that leverage the insights from the many footprints we leave online.  Now, for example, shopping sites might offer suggestions of movies or videos based on previous purchases.  The next level will be companies that make those suggestions based on not just your activity on one specific site, but across a range of places -- what you watch on web TV, on YouTube, and other sites....

If a company can capture all my online activity, as it occurs in real time, it can have an integrated view of me as an individual and suggest things I didn't even know I wanted to look at.

Although the ad focuses on many potential improvements to our lifestyles and well-being, there are a few disturbing ideas as well.  One of the articles mentions an experimental Cloud technology showcased at a recent trade show which promoted the concept of installing cameras in your bathroom mirror, "alerting doctors" of potential illnesses.

Here's a crazy thought:  What if our beneficent government wanted to gain control of "The Cloud" to more easily identify potential enemies of the state?  How farfetched is it to believe that the federal government won't eventually command this technology?   FCC chairman Julius Genachowski has already exerted regulatory influence over the internet with the implementation of "net neutrality" regulations.  This is just the first step, the "camel's nose under the tent", toward the goal of complete internet control.

Orwell knew the propensity for governments to desire the enslavement of their people, but he couldn't possibly imagine the technology that might so easily achieve it.  Will the concept of "government transparency" be twisted into a scenario in which a ruling class lives in the "clouds" over a completely transparent citizenry?

Or am I just catching my wife's paranoia?

Andrew Thomas blogs at darkangelpolitics.com

[Mr. Jazzy]

It’s also got a lot to do with money.
Microsoft, for one, is trying to curtail the piracy issue and sees the cloud as a way to keep the dollars flowing into their accounts and NOT the pockets of bootleggers.

[stainlessbanner]

ping

[ShadowAce]

[Erik Latranyi]

Nobody is a bigger advocate for the cloud than Google. Microsoft pales in comparison.

[rarestia]

“Cloud” computing is only becoming de rigeur in retail markets due to the proliferation of thin client technologies in business.

VMWare’s VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) is the latest in “cloud computing” utilizing large SANs like those available from EMC. They see how well it works in multi-national business, the control it gives them, and now they’re working to exert control over the masses in the same way.

I, for one, will be keeping my data local. I have a few terabytes of backup space and two Ultrium tape drives running full and incremental backups every day. I trust myself more the MS, EMC, and Cisco.

[Still Thinking]

I trust myself more the MS, EMC, and Cisco.

Did they give you permission to have that idea? Everytime I see one of these threads about off-site storage or cloud[y thinking] computing, I sit down and list as many of the disasters-in-waiting as I can. It's just unbelievable what a moronic idea this is.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

All you data are belong to us.

[rarestia]

For large organizations such as my employer, virtual desktops provide great management of clients. However, in real-world practical terms, the problems that will arise from rolling outages or network connectivity issues will drive people back to local desktops very quickly.

[SeekAndFind]

I remember posting a message saying that we have important information already on a company’s server somewhere in the cloud.

I cited those who have their e-mails using Yahoo mail or Google mail as an example.

The response to me was in effect — those who trust Yahoo and Google to keep your data private or even to secure your data are not smart.

Well what can I say? That makes millions of people out there...

[sniper63]

all yur data bits r belong to us..........

[Still Thinking]

I know. I see some small potential benefits, but the number and severity of the risks, especially with the industry’s history of data leakage and theft, and their ongoing desire to charge you repeatedly for the same thing, the cost-benefit seems like nowhere near breakeven to me.

[Still Thinking]

The response to me was in effect — those who trust Yahoo and Google to keep your data private or even to secure your data are not smart.

The responder was me.

Well what can I say? That makes millions of people out there...

Yes, it does. And that's not a good thing.

(It kind of sounds as if you're politely trying to dissuade me from labeling as "idiots", "morons", "fools", "cretins" and so on, those whose decisions are shared by millions of others. I give you in response O's election, McCain's nomination, McCain's reelection, and so on.)

[rarestia]

There’s absolutely no break-even, and I doubt there ever will be. Our data is best secured by our own hand. I don’t even trust Microsoft’s vault or their encryption, but I use it (with a fairly-priced PPM on my mobo) with a very complex and lengthy password (91 character alphanumeric/symbolic).

The possibility of data theft is astronomical considering what the Chicomms have done. There’s also the issue of idiot users who click on any email that asks them for a password under the guise of an “oops” on the part of the sending “company.”

Like I said, I’ll stick with my local storage, esp. considering how much the costs have plummeted for the largest of external disks.

[zeugma]

It’s also got a lot to do with money. Microsoft, for one, is trying to curtail the piracy issue and sees the cloud as a way to keep the dollars flowing into their accounts and NOT the pockets of bootleggers.

Not just bootleggers. Virtualization has opened some people's eyes how horribly wasteful it is to have sinegle-purpose MS-Windows servers in their datacenters. You take a look at the stand-alone MS-Windows servers and you'll see a huge number of servers that are essentially running idle on modern CPUs. Not only is that wasteful in hardware, it has to be provisioned for power, cooling, space, and resources such as disk, and network.

The amount of waste this represents is staggering when you put it all together.

That's not to say that other types of computer systems can't be similarly wasteful, but more often than not, Unix and other midrange platforms are not provisioned as single-purpose systems.

[Still Thinking]

As if that wasn’t bad enough, you have all these internet companies that think the BOR was a suggestion, as long as the data in question is yours, and are willing to INTENTIONALLY give it to any branch of government on the basis of any request, absent a warrant! Who the hell are they to be waiving other peoples rights?

[rarestia]

With Net Neutrality and now O-wee-wee proposing an individual Internet ID for the masses, why in the world would anyone want to put their data “in the cloud?”

Last I checked, clouds dissipate.

[zeugma]

While I don’t trust the ‘cloud’ stuff, I’m big on virtualization. From a testing perspective, it’s a freaking Godsend. I can run VMs of half a dozen different clients and configurations from one well-equiped workstation. From a business perspective, it is a no-brainer. Still took me forever to sell it to management though when I was first pushing it through our organization. I’ve still seen a lot less take-up by other internal organizations that I initially expected. I guess folks like having multiple workstations under their desk.

[Still Thinking]

AFTER they hail on you.

[rarestia]

Virtualization is an amazing thing! We run a farm of 5 HP BladeSystems connected to our SAN with ESX. We’re also testing VDI. It’s a great technology. I use VM Workstation at home with multiple VMs for testing on my home network and domain.

Cloud computing should not be confused with virtualization technology. The two are worlds apart.