Cloud Computing: The Buzz and Blur

I just came across an article entitled, "Storm warning for cloud computing", published by the BBC. Yes folks, sometimes I read works unrelated to pirates and ninjas. In any case, Bill Thompson writes about cloud computing, virtualization and basically, how companies hire a third party like Amazon to store data in widely distributed server nooks and crannies.

CANUCKS ON CLOUD
Thompson writes that "the Canadian government has a policy of not allowing public sector IT projects to use US-based hosting services because of concerns over data protection." Funny, I just thought the Canadian government liked spending money in Canada.

Lately, there has been a great deal of controversy surrounding US-stored Canadian medicare records. While this was traditionally an issue for outsourced non-Canadian rack storage, it now also applies to cloud computing as well. Basically, if the government is going to buy storage space, they better be damn sure they know the data can't be seized by the FBI - whether it's in the ether or on a purchased machine.

So essentially, contrary to Thompson's punny title, there's nothing "stormy" to be upset about. Or alternatively, you should've been upset when international 3rd party hosts began potentially storing your financial, employment and personal information years ago.

As a reader, I'm more worried by Thompson's statement:
"In the real world, national borders, commercial rivalries and political imperatives all come into play, turning the cloud into a miasma as heavy with menace as the fog over the Grimpen Mire that concealed the Hound of the Baskervilles in Arthur Conan Doyle's story."

I'll admit I sometimes mince the Queen's English, but even I know that likening a cloud to a fog (even a gas lit one), is a piss poor simile for a professional writer.

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Cloud Computing: The Buzz and Blur

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