I totally agree.
Had just such a discussion recently with some friends of mine.
It kinda defeats the purpose of actual Cloud based storage having to do local backups ... and so there is no circumstance in which I would use cloud storage for critical data storage. Particularly for business data.
I really don't see how Cloud based storage is ever going to get off the ground. After experiencing the electricity blackout/grid-crash of 2003 which affected 55 million people for up to 4 days; for irreplaceable critical data I wouldnt trust any grid which uses that sort of anonymous, distributed structure.
How risky are such structures?
The grid crash of 2003 was started by a single tree in Ohio that had not been trimmed properly. So for a few days, the northeast section of the North American continent including a large section of Canada was pretty much sent back to the Dark Ages ... night after night entire neighborhoods gathering around open fires in otherwise pitch-black areas and roasting meat (from their rapidly thawing freezers) and talking about what firearms they had available while wondering if civil unrest was going to break out. (actually, it was a pretty good time
How much adversity is required to affect data in the Cloud or even just the availability of the Internet so I can access the cloud? ... an earthquake? ... a power outage? ... a hacker? Nevermind worms and viruses. Do I want to find out?
(btw: nothing has been done to prevent another grid crash. The industry is relying on societal energy conservation measures to reduce load on the system ... oh now THATS a good solution ... we are definitely heading toward *reduced* electrical load. I digress ...)
And about security ... storage on redundant, diffuse sights is also at direct odds with the security of that data.
The comparison of the electrical grid and any cloud computing grid works on a number of levels.
Your data is somewhere out there on servers you do not know, on a system you do not control, run by people who may or may not be doing what they are supposed to, and may or may not be actually accountable to you in a way which protects your interests. Sure, you could always sue them ... er ... someone .. ah, if you can find them ... and have the money and time to do so ... while you are dealing with the crushing effects of the data loss. Can you imagine trying to untangle exactly who was responsible where when it comes to applying liability when your data was stored out there somewhere.
As it was in the Blackout of 2003, in the end, there very well might be nobody you can sue for damages for your losses.
Cloud storage is supposed to be based on redundancy.
Uh huh.
Like the electrical grid was set up to be self-preserving or Three Mile Island had failsafes.
How quickly the best laid plans go to hell.
How much redundancy is needed to be safe? ... how much is being applied to your data? ... and how can you be certain of it?
Permanent data loss is one problem ... another problem that can be crippling for a company is to simply have their data inaccessible for an extended period ... that is, another actual electricity grid blackout.
At least if you make part of your storage plans in known, finite locations such as on-site you can determine if emergency power plans are in place ... across the broad expanses of the Internet, that is not possible.
