Apple Co-Founder Sounds Warning Over Cloud

[Guest FourAces]

Hmmm Steve Wozniak predicts there will me major problems with Cloud computing. Also, notes we no longer might own our content.

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During an on-stage discussion with Apple (AAPL) critic Mike Daisey, the Cupertino-based company’s co-founder Steve Wozniak expressed major concerns about the future of computing and the shift to the cloud, Agence France-Presse reported. “I really worry about everything going to the cloud. I think it’s going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years,” Wozniak said, adding that “with the cloud, you don’t own anything. You already signed it away” through the terms of service all cloud computing users must agree to.

[TampaYankee]

I have similar concerns. I don't actively do cloud computing and I do not think I will start if I can help it.

I do share movies with my son on some cloud accounts that are his. He 'buys' some movies on these accounts. One of his movies that he 'bought' disappeared when the company he purchased through lost the 'license' to hold that movie. So much for 'buying' on the cloud. He had no recourse as the company would not respond.

We haven't even touched Big Brother yet. Good luck.

[AdamSmith]

Cowplop. World-leading manufacturing companies do their high-demand engineering simulation in the cloud today, and would not think of going back. Including the most paranoically security-conscious defense contractors. I know firsthand that a shitload of the simulation that went into the Joint Strike Fighter, etc., etc., etc. was done in the cloud. TY, you too know this firsthand. Lockheed Martin Defense Systems, General Dynamics Land Systems, Raytheon, General Dynamics Electric Boat, Pratt & Whitney, General Atomics, on and on and on -- these guys may be evil but they are not dummies. They are all way into the cloud today. Likewise with the big EPCs -- Fluor, Bechtel, Halliburton, Jacobs Engineering, Brown & Root, et al.

Granted, consumers may always get the shaft (see related post on the clusterfuck of hotmail's demise -- I hate that like everyone else). But business customers have clout that will sink a cloud provider if one single breach occurs. Look at the success of salesforce.com -- I fought tooth and nail with an old boss who would on no account put our customer lists in the cloud. But now no sensible company would do it any other way. Relying on my own maintenance of my in-office server to keep alive such a critical resource, instead of the professionals at salesforce whose whole business would go down the toilet if they (1) failed to maintain the absolute integrity of my data or (2) allowed any kind of security breach, would just be delusional thinking on my part.

We already trust online banking, providing we have adequate security on our local devices. What is more important than our money?

[Guest EXPAT]

I agree as well. I will not store anything on the cloud. The only thing I use cloud for is for syncing my calendar and contacts. With disk drives being so cheap, I'd rather have my own network of backups than using cloud computing. I don't trust any companies security system or who might or might not have access to it. I doubt anything would change my mind on this one. I know how cheap companies can be so I won't be trusting them anytime soon.

"On-line" banking is not cloud computing. There is a completely different set of security with banking online. So you can't compare the two at all.

[Guest NCBored]

I use Dropbox to keep some files backed up but anything sensitive I back up manually on an external hard drive. And upload speeds, on my home network, are prohibitive for large files (e.g. video).

[AdamSmith]

"On-line" banking is not cloud computing. There is a completely different set of security with banking online. So you can't compare the two at all.

Respectfully beg to differ. When world-class engineering organizations put their mission-critical IP into the cloud, the security is banking-level.

Agree, as I said before, that is far different from many consumer-oriented cloud services. My point is that security is not inherently put at risk simply because of something being cloud-based these days. Just depends on how it is implemented.

[Guest EXPAT]

We don't disagree. I was comparing on line banking to consumer cloud services which is what the majority are familiar with.

I'm not sure I'd put any mission critical operation in the cloud unless the cloud was proprietary to the company only.

[AdamSmith]

I'm not sure I'd put any mission critical operation in the cloud unless the cloud was proprietary to the company only.

That would make unavailable one of the central benefits of the cloud: computing on demand.

A big reason that companies such as those I mentioned above buy cloud computing services from third-party hosts is to accommodate spikes in demand as engineering projects move through peak workload periods. It has long been a source of cost and waste for these companies to have to maintain in-house what is, a great deal of the time, idle computing capacity.

One of the industry's terms of art for this is "infinite computing." In fact it is proving a godsend to medium and smaller engineering organizations that can now afford to rent levels of computing power for brief but project-critical tasks that they would be hard-pressed to pay for as purchased and in-house-maintained infrastructure.

[Guest EXPAT]

I am certain that mission critical "cloud" computing is vastly different from apple's iCloud or DropBox or Google's version whatever it's called. In my experience when we did it at my old company it was a proprietary cloud with specific security as specified by the RFP from our company.

[AdamSmith]

Yeah, just so. B2B cloud providers of that ilk use massive security and partitioning tools (and offer contractual guarantees, with reparation commitments etc.) that are worlds apart from Dropbox et al.

We are in heated agreement.

[lookin]

Namaste.

No sir, the Benjamin Nicholas

thread is no longer in the cloud.

In fact it is high above.

Mr. OZ has most urgently

requested that it be placed

somewhere near Uranus.

Yes, please do have a nice day.

[Guest NCBored]

Yeah, just so. B2B cloud providers of that ilk use massive security and partitioning tools (and offer contractual guarantees, with reparation commitments etc.) that are worlds apart from Dropbox et al.

We are in heated agreement.

Yes, B2B and personal computing are vastly different. Wozniak's remarks only make sense in the context of personal computing (if then.) For example, TY's anecdote about his nephew's content.

[AdamSmith]

So why the brouhaha? Put it on a memory stick and forget about it. How dense can we be?

[AdamSmith]

that it be placed

somewhere near Uranus.