Cloud computing is one of the latest internet phenomenons. In essence, the cloud is the internet, and storing your documents there simply means uploading them to the web through a variety of ways. You can use your own server space but it’s generally more popular to use a dedicated service. Many companies offer this facility; some of the most well known include Amazon and Google. Microsoft also offers possibilities for storing documents on the web as well as on your computer. But should you be doing it?
That depends on a variety of factors. First of all, it’s important to note that documents in the cloud are by definition more easily accessible to outsiders. In most cases, your data will be reasonably secure. Unfortunately, particularly in the case of Google, you’re not actually protected. This is because Google’s terms of service state quite blatantly that although you keep the copyright to your work, Google also has the right to use it whenever they like – or terminate your access so your important documents are simply lost in the ether. They can do this whenever they like, without the need to notify you. That’s a bit scary.
Amazon’s terms are slightly less forbidding, in that they will provide you notification of cancelled services and, if you aren’t breaking the law, will allow you to retrieve your data so long as you pay the bills.
Regardless, it’s probably a bad idea to store important data in the cloud. Even personal emails could vanish at any time, reminding us all why switching your business over to Google Apps feels disconcertingly dangerous. I recommend it as a back-up. Your physical business could always run into problems, after all; floods, fires, earthquakes, and tornadoes are just a few of the natural disasters that can completely destroy in-house servers. No amount of insurance money is going to get that data back. Don’t forget viruses and Trojans, especially those that spread themselves across a network. If a copy of important information is stored on the internet, it’s not likely to go anywhere at all.
In the end it comes down to your own individual research and needs. Personal email services, like Hotmail and Gmail, have these same restrictions, but no one appears to mind that they serve ads tailored to the content of your email messages. But for businesses with important, secret products and services that plan their strategies around big surprise announcements, a single Google or Amazon employee could spill the beans. I don’t know how much access they’re granted but the fact that they probably have some is no doubt uncomfortable. Most companies, however, have plenty of others that could leak the data, including personal employees and their outsourced IT support. Companies should weigh the risks between safe, cost-effective data storage and privacy leaks or occasional service disruptions.
For personal users, though, the decision is a little bit simpler. Plenty of people already store their CVs – with all of their personally identifiable information – on their personal websites for easy access by future employers and business contacts. As such, making the leap to storing such information in the cloud is not a very big one. Personal computers are more susceptible to damage than workplace servers as well, and it’s less likely that you’ll back them up with any frequency. For people in London IT support may be able to rescue your files, but for most of us they would be lost forever.
In short, I recommend using the cloud as a backup server if your data is not highly secretive. It’s always worth having multiple copies of important documents and storing one on the internet is a great way to safeguard yourself against natural disasters and computer viruses.