QOTD: Do you think the trend towards to Cloud storage is good?

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Shaun

Do you think the trend towards Cloud storage is good? What are the benefits and downsides for you? Thanks to Jah.

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19 Responses to QOTD: Do you think the trend towards to Cloud storage is good?

  1. Graham says:
    May 20, 2011 at 6:38 am

    I love it but don’t entirely trust it yet. (Just re-read that: must be like that being married to certain football stars. Not saying who: might be a super injunction). Great to have access to docs etc when out and about. However I don’t keep any sensitive data on the cloud. Recent breaches at Sony have confirmed that it is perhaps wise to be cautious.

  2. Neil says:
    May 20, 2011 at 6:53 am

    For me, there’s little practical benefit in “cloud” storage over and above standard hosted storage. I use hosted storage a lot, although predominantly on my server at home.

  3. Statto says:
    May 20, 2011 at 7:15 am

    With Graham.
    If we want to be entirely set free and have acess to our data anywhere it’s an inevitable and logical thing. However, I think there are still huge actual and perceptive issues of data security and trust to be overcome

    I love Dropbox for exampe, but there’s stuff I wouldn’t store there – yet. But really, is it any more risky than being stored on my PC at home?

  4. Bobbd says:
    May 20, 2011 at 7:35 am

    It’s good in that it’s another piece of the puzzle. It needs to mature some and other pieces are also needed such as faster cheaper bandwidth. The cloud needs much more security and much more long term dependability. But to really make use of it, we’ll need faster access with much greater upload/download limits.

    I use Dropbox but not much more. I don’t have the money to spend on the capacity to make it worthwhile.

    Bob

  5. Mr Fatuous says:
    May 20, 2011 at 8:04 am

    Yes and no. I love the fact that when I changed phones I didn’t have to import and export contacts and calendars. However I wouldn’t store anything too senstive in the cloud and I certainly wouldn’t only store it there, you need a hard copy somewhere.

    I certainly wouldn’t trust one of those encryption tools that stores encrypted data like passwords and credit cards to the cloud. I’d like that data to remain local only.

    I’m saddened that however many years later there still isn’t anything that can touch the original hotsync from Palm.

  6. Snail says:
    May 20, 2011 at 8:43 am

    I’m with Mr F. There’s no way I would store sensitive commercial or personal info in the cloud at this point in time.

  7. Neil says:
    May 20, 2011 at 8:49 am

    need a hard copy somewhere

    If it is sensitive, unless you have a bank vault, is hard copy data not a greater threat than suitably-encrypted digital data?

  8. DavidGreen says:
    May 20, 2011 at 9:50 am

    Like many here, I agree that the concept is good, but ….
    1. I have fears for security of the data,
    2. Mobile data connectivity ( from my own observations at the least ) is not reliable enough,
    3. Mobile data connectivity comes with a price tag I am not prepared to accept, and
    4. Speed of access cannot compare with local storage.

    So, for me, it is avoid like the plague!

  9. jah says:
    May 20, 2011 at 11:10 am

    I see the Cloud as another utility for improving flexibility for information access across a number of devices (phone and table) – and one good for non-sensitive data. But given that memory is cheap (e.g. 16 GB Micro SD cards) I don’t really see the benefits of the Cloud for storage.

  10. vboelema says:
    May 20, 2011 at 11:20 am

    Is it kinda like putting your money in the bank? You trust someone else to look after it and keep track of it and not to loose a record of it. And generally you can get most of it back – lol! They also use it for their own good… but I guess not all of it is personal information. Can you not encrypt a file before you store it in the cloud?

  11. vboelema says:
    May 20, 2011 at 11:22 am

    I should have probably mentioned I have everything backed up to multiple hard drives and my personal stuff is encrypted.

  12. Mr Fatuous says:
    May 20, 2011 at 12:58 pm

    @Neil: Sorry, when I said hard copy what I meant was a copy on a device I owned rather than in floating about somewhere in “the cloud.” Not a stack of paper in a filing cabinet. Hard drive, DVDs and occasionally paper locked away in a safe.

  13. NX70 says:
    May 22, 2011 at 8:03 am

    Strange how you guys still live in the 90ies. I know most of you from back then, and you dont seem to have opened your view/ mind:
    1) cloud storage means more than Dropbox.
    2) you can pay for your cloud space and by choosing a credible company you eliminate many problems.
    3) social networks are one way of cloud storage.
    4) itunes sync, android google sync or windows life sync is cloud storage ffs!

    1) nearly every hoster sells cloud space. It is ideal for files you need to be backed up ‘for life’. Even MS Office word delivers a suitable encryption, which can be opened on my Symbian phone (best replacement for PalmOS). Integration is pretty easy: WebDav makes it possible to access it like a local drive.

    2) my hoster sells it for as low as 5 bucks a month, he guarantees noone has access to the data, enrypts them and supports external encryption standards. Should the data get leaked i am insured – all with the 5€ per month.

    3) uploading pictures or activating the contact and calendar sync on facebook means u enabled cloud storage. Your contacts are now in the worst kept cloud of man kind.

    4) same applies to all big OS provider (except Nokia!). Your very most sensitive data is synced with the cloud! Contacts, calender entries or notes are kept with the biggest software houses of the world – do you think they will listen should some security issues occur? Did facebook revert its unwanted contacts sync with iphone? How fast? Did google even offer you another sync url in the past on unrooted phones? Your email is in the ‘cloud’, so is most of your life.

    Just make sure you use SSL/ TLS connections, dont stay with the handset manufacturer, pay for a cheap premium service instead of using a free cloud and be happy about the new freedom. In the long run paying for security is better than being paid off for desaster!

  14. NX70 says:
    May 22, 2011 at 8:09 am

    oh, and btw: I feel sorry for you UK guys. Mobile access data rates most be sky high. How much is it per MB or flatrate? Germany goes as low as 15€ per month for unlimitied access with speeds varying between approx. 600kbps and 2Mbps, depending upon your location. Pretty cool, eh? I dont even have a landline anymore =)

    The best replacement in my eyes for the hotsync is Nokias PCSuite: its local, highly reliable and completely automated and integrated with Outlook. Shame Symbian is dead

  15. Neil says:
    May 22, 2011 at 9:22 am

    Strange how you guys still live in the 90ies. I know most of you from back then, and you dont seem to have opened your view/ mind

    The solutions you’ve posted don’t look like “cloud” storage to me – just traditional hosted storage, which has been around for ages? Perhaps I’m just not one for buzzwords, but “cloud” does very little for me – I do make a lot of my data available over the Internet, or else remotely via VPN, though.


    It is ideal for files you need to be backed up ‘for life’.

    Only if you have back-ups with other vendors / other equipment too, in my mind. I wouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket if the eggs were sufficiently important to me.

    he guarantees noone has access to the data

    So, if law enforcement comes along, they can’t access your files unless you provide the encryption key?

  16. NX70 says:
    May 22, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    Well Neil, it is true, that Law enforcements can access the provider encrypted files, not the files I encrypt on the end device. In Germany law prevents law enforcement from forcing you to hand out information, which may be used against you.

    But then again, I am no criminal, I dont think that they would even try to break a 64bit or 128bit AES encrypted file if they searched for something. You always have to see the relation between desire and effort. Why would they want to see my files in the first place? Why would criminals try to break any encrypted file if they can get information for free on facebook?
    I am very concerned about privacy, but I also realize that small barriers already help to keep them afar.
    Cheers

  17. Neil says:
    May 22, 2011 at 9:37 pm

    You always have to see the relation between desire and effort.

    Absolutely – I deal with law enforcement agencies (across Europe and further) quite regularly on this kind of thing (interception, and access to stored data). In Germany, law enforcement actually seems to have quite a lot of powers!

    I agree entirely with what you say, but, for the same reason, prefer that I encrypt data myself, before uploading, rather than relying on supplier-provided encryption :)

  18. NX70 says:
    May 23, 2011 at 3:57 pm

    That’s pretty interesting, since the people dont think German police is so powerful. Public perception is that we have the most conservative underpowered police in the world – but that UK suffers a lot under the terrorist regulations and video cameras.

    So you would suggest keeping personal data more secure in Germany using the highest encryption available, not disclosing unnecessary information and keeping cloud storage as low as possible?

  19. Neil says:
    May 23, 2011 at 4:07 pm

    i>So you would suggest keeping personal data more secure in Germany using the highest encryption available, not disclosing unnecessary information and keeping cloud storage as low as possible?

    I don’t have a particular view on the risk profile in Germany – however, this seems to me just good common sense when using any third party service, no matter how much protection might be afforded to someone by law! There’s always a balance between convenience and security, and I do try to find that balance – where a service is beneficial to me, I want to find the most secure way of doing it, without losing too much convenience, and then decide whether the balancing act is met. For me, that involves a lot of self-hosting (and the associated reading up on server-side security, locking down machines etc.), and plenty of encryption, although I am not under the misapprehension that this is perfect.

    I do often wonder whether, actually, storing with Google or Amazon might be more secure, if only because their network admins will be (or, at least, hopefully are) considerably more skilled than I am in network security. As long as I have my data encrypted, such that third party access to my hosted space does not necessarily mean a compromise of the information, that’s probably just as secure as me hosting the same encrypted data on my own boxes.

    My main risk, in my opinion, is of inadvertent disclosure, or an opportunist hacker – if someone *really* wants my data, they’ll find a way to get to it, government or otherwise.