I was reading INFORMATION WEEK and felt like I had to poke a small sharp stick of reason into the big stampede to CLOUD computing, GOOGLE, and the idea of letting other people with computers far away manage things, just because it’s easier.

Let’s start with the one-part amazing, 99 part creepy thought that if you apply for a job at Google, it’s said you just type in your name and SSN and the forms are filled out for you.  If you think that’s an exaggeration, you aren’t paying attention.  If you think that’s a good thing, you need to go back and read George Orwell and Aldous Huxley a bit more carefully.  Take note of the fact those protagonists are NOT happy.

Seriously, folks.  Google makes their money /bread on information.  They gather every available keystroke of anything (they’ll have this post as soon as I hit publish).   They index it.  They apply metrics to it and sell adds based on it - they archive it.  If you use GMail (and I do use it - I’m just a little careful with what I store there) they have it.  They scan your correspondence and provide ads right there in GMail that show they are aware of what the content is in each e-mail…they are run by people, not machines, so do you really believe no people ever consider accessing all of that?

Now companies are thinking about sharing applications, storing a lot of their data off site, running IT through the virtual world better be well aware of the pitfalls.  The server is not yours.  It isn’t in your building.  It isn’t under your control.  I don’t care what guarantees they give you, their IT Staff can access those computers, and you need to weigh the cost in security of having them in that position.  YOUR IT guys can do this as well, on your servers, but if you are paying attention, you have investigated their background, run security checks, and you know where they live.  If your data is on a global system, and the company behind your global system fails suddenly and spectacularly…can you get your data back?  Maybe.

If you use applications in a virtual world, and it grows slow, over-loaded, or becomes unavailable, what is your alternate plan of action?  Huh? is a bad answer.

The bottom line of my mini rant is that while it seems a good idea to let universities and laboratories share computing power and architecture, it is not the same animal as sharing your corporate data, tools, and security with another entity - or a group of them with their computers in the “clouds”.

Training, good internal security, and a reliable network are the answers - still - to 99.9 percent of corporate needs.  If cost is a problem, there are alternatives.  Open Office.  Linux. Just because IT words don’t seem to be English to you doesn’t mean they aren’t useful.

In any case, your IT guys don’t have shirts that say things like “Do you have a backup of your e-mail?” on the front and “If you need it, I do…” on the back for nothing.  Get guys you trust, and keep them in plain sight for the forseeable future.  Don’t hand the keys of the kingdom off to a bunch of Big Brothers in the clouds.

Trust no one.

EVERYTHING is out there.

DNW

Technorati Tags: big brother, computer clouds, data management, Google, IT Management, security

Posted on 05/30/08, 10:57 AM
in: IT
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