The Accidental Tourist voices his concerns with cloud computing, the web mot du jour (thanks Karyn):
… there is a Gartner report endorsing cloud computing. Then the very next paragraph states that the same organisation published a report warning of the dangers of cloud computing.
The stability of cloud computing was examined by Read/Write Web last week in light of recent GMail service outages. R/WW thinks that peer to peer may eventually subvert the cloud model.
You need $ gazillions to be a Cloud Computing Platform. Those server farms cost a lot. Skimping, or misjudging demand, leads to outages, slow response and other confidence-killers. This is a game for the big boys – Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, AT&T, Sun.
R/WW describes four P2P platforms, of which I only know Skype, an application that I have been using and liking for several years. Another application they describe is Wuala, which offers P2P online storage. I checked it out but I’m not sure if I want my files stored on other people’s computers. You get 1GB for free and then can purchase more or share some of your space in return for some online storage. Personally, I prefer to use a cheap external hard drive or flash drive.
There is no single way that is best and I like to see new models being tested to usurp the big guys. It keeps everyone on their toes. However, if your data are important, you should know where they reside, as I said in Own Your Data. All of this has implications for training and education, especially as more organisations use Web 2.0 tools for learning.
