[LINK] Cloud Computing Definition

[Jan Whitaker]

At 11:40 AM 28/07/2013, Frank O'Connor wrote:
>My data paranoia is of legendary proportions, 
>but so is my desire for privacy and independence 
>... so I can't see the Cloud (especially in 
>these days of PRISM and other state sponsored 
>data hoovering) as being a large part of my future strategy.


and continuing:


Edward Snowden's not the story. The fate of the internet is

The press has lost the plot over the Snowden 
revelations. The fact is that the net is finished 
as a global network and that US firms' cloud services cannot be trusted
         John Naughton
         The Observer, Saturday 27 July 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jul/28/edward-snowden-death-of-internet

[snip to end]

But the Snowden revelations also have implications for you and me.

They tell us, for example, that no US-based 
internet company can be trusted to protect our 
privacy or data. The fact is that Google, 
Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft are 
all integral components of the US 
cyber-surveillance system. Nothing, but nothing, 
that is stored in their "cloud" services can be 
guaranteed to be safe from surveillance or from 
illicit downloading by employees of the 
consultancies employed by the NSA. That means 
that if you're thinking of outsourcing your 
troublesome IT operations to, say, Google or Microsoft, then think again.

And if you think that that sounds like the 
paranoid fantasising of a newspaper columnist, 
then consider what Neelie Kroes, vice-president 
of the European Commission, had to say on the 
matter recently. "If businesses or governments 
think they might be spied on," she said, "they 
will have less reason to trust the cloud, and it 
will be cloud providers who ultimately miss out. 
Why would you pay someone else to hold your 
commercial or other secrets, if you suspect or 
know they are being shared against your wishes? 
Front or back door – it doesn't matter – any 
smart person doesn't want the information shared 
at all. Customers will act rationally and 
providers will miss out on a great opportunity."

Spot on. So when your chief information officer 
proposes to use the Amazon or Google cloud as a 
data-store for your company's confidential 
documents, tell him where to file the proposal. In the shredder.


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the 
world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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