Working in the cloud- documents only or apps too?

I have what could only be called a morbid fascination with working in the cloud.  I've watched Kevin toiling up in the stratosphere and listened to his findings and his excitement about it and it is certainly contagious.  I realize the advantages that can be gained by keeping all your data in the cloud, duly backed up and accessible from any device you might be using.  That's pretty heady stuff and something that can be game changing for many folks.

I see the value of keeping all of my work in the cloud but where I'm not quite feeling comfortable is in the area of using only cloud apps to create new work.  One of the benefits of having my work performed on my local clients is that should I need to work with a document created 5 - 10 years ago I'm pretty sure I can do it.  Sure, the application that created that important document will surely have changed but with some effort I can probably get to the information in that old document in a pinch.  Will that same thing hold true for documents created with a cloud app?  What if the company that created the app goes under, or gets sold to someone else who changes it in a major way.  Will I be guaranteed the ability to interact with my older documents in either scenario?  That keeps me up nights worrying about that.  Having my old business documents around forever won't do me a bit of good if I can't open them or access the information.

The same fear applies even more for my old email.  Sure I don't need to access an email from years ago very often but if I need to do that I really need to do that.  If I switch to a cloud email app like GMail will I be able to work with my older stuff in the future?  What about the GBs of archived Outlook email I have now?  If I switch to cloud email can I bring all of those archived conversations into the cloud?  You can see why I'm hesitant to embrace the cloud.  It's a future accessibility thing.

Comments

[Wiley J]

Maybe it is generational. I started to work for IBM the first of January, 1969. I like to know where my data is. I need to know where it is backed up. I want to protect it as ONLY I can protect it.
Similar to text messaging being a generational thing, I am a child of the transition of terminals on mini-computers to desk top computers. I am a child of email. I use the cloud. I do my banking online. I only write 20-25 checks per year. I ordered cigars and roller ball refills online last night from my laptop on the couch watching the Astro's win.
But I am not ready to shove ALL of me and my data up into some huge data center in Washington State. It was bad enough when the data center blew up here in Houston and I had no email for several days.
Clouds are pretty as they float by but clouds are also associated with hurricanes and tornadoes. Danger Will Robinson!!
..wiley
NW Houston

[Hoot69]

The problems with having EVERYTHING in the clouds is access. I'm a born and raised "Show-Me" stater, and have the need to be able to touch and see my data.

Based on your experiences at CES and with various modem problems, I wouldn't suggest a total relocation to the Cloud neighborhood just yet, at least without direct access to your important data somewhere else.

I can protect the data on my HD's in my possession better than in someone elses.

=-= Hoot

[Scott_H]

JK,

Off topic, but you mentioned the GBs of Outlook email you have saved in the event you might need to access a years-old email. I also have years of email stored in different Outlook .pst files. I've needed to access older emails many times. But, because most search applications only index the active .pst file, I haven't found a decent way to find (via search) older emails in other "archived" .pst files. Like you said, when I need to find an older email, I *really* need to find it. There have been times when I've spent an entire evening rummaging through .pst files looking for one specific email -- and, more often than I'd like, not finding it. There's got to be a better way.

How do you handle archiving and searching GBs of old Outlook email?

[Mark Polino]

Having had a website I had done a ton of work on wiped out without recourse by a cloud vendor, I'm leery of putting my life in the cloud. I'll take responsibility for my own data but that's often hard to do in a cloud environment. To me, free services offer the lease guarantee. If Google Docs eats my files one day, what recourse do I have? None. I have no recourse either if Windows eats my files. The difference is that I know that with Windows and take cautionary steps.

Sometimes you can't do that with the cloud. In a related note, Netsuite (think cloud accounting for your business) disclosed that it doesn't have a separate backup facility for customer data. Everything is in a single facility in California. Imagine losing your whole business to the cloud.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201001096

Mark

[captgoodhope]

Scott_H, here's one option:

http://www.caelo.com/

xobni may work also--have the beta but didn't install it yet.

http://www.xobni.com/

[Gavin Miller]

We've talked before about the issues of not always being able to connect due to location, but the other thing is responsiveness of the online app which will always be affected by any net congestion.

Kevin's attempt is interesting to follow but i think that generally we'll using a mix of client and online apps, getting the best from both worlds, for many years to come.

[Eric Link]

Personally I am trying to do as much as possible in the cloud including apps. One key thing I look for is the ability to export my docs/data in some kind of reasonable/standard format. Then I backup the data to my local machine (automated if possible) so that if the cloud goes away I still have my stuff. I love the convenience of working on my stuff from any machine and so far access hasn't been a major issue for me (esp now w/ 3g tethered phone)

[TateJ]

I'm with you James. I don't mind having data backed up and synced online, but i want a copy locally.

My solution is to put documents in the cloud and then access them using Portable Apps if I don't have one of my portable computing devices with me. I keep Portable Apps on a 1 gig usb thumb drive that is attached to my keychain.

I'm hoping that Live Mesh will be all its cracked up to be so I can stop having to manage different versions of documents.

[Rick Huizinga]

James,

Take a look at my e-mail to you from a couple of weeks ago in regards to the Visual Studio giveaway. The answer lies within! ;)

[Pam T.]

As an defense IT contractor, I've got one more thing to throw into the mix. With the advent of cyberterrorism, physical terrorism, and looming global warfare at any given moment, just what do yout think happens to our network accesses during times of national emergency?

Don't get me wrong, I'm an advocate of working within the cloud. But I'm also an advocate of physical possession and redundancy.

[Bob Russell]

So the big question is WHICH data can go in the cloud.

I'd put transient work on the web that I don't mind needing an internet connection to get to. "Can't lose" or sensitive data or high volume data has to stay with me locally.

But how to work that out in a simple way is still beyond me. Maybe Kevin will help us with some guidelines of what should go in the cloud and what should stay in the house.

[Nate]

I won't leave all of this stuff up to the Cloud until the Cloud can perform these tasks as well as the desktop apps.

As nice as Google Docs and Sheets is, it still can't even come close to producing documents as good looking as Microsoft Office. When I can look at two documents, one being Google the other being Office, and not tell the difference between the two, that's when I'll view the Cloud as a viable option.

[Joel]

It would be interesting to see a comparison of the costs of local applications compared to those of cloud variety. Mobile Internet connections are still very expensive. I've started using online storage as well, but are the cloud applications worth the price in the end?

[TateJ]

I just had another thought on this subject. What happens to cloud computing if/when the ISPs start imposing the monthly internet usage caps?

[Rick Huizinga]

@TateJ, I don't think cloud computing is significantly bandwidth intensive to approach the caps. Rather, I see ISP (especially cable companies) bandwidth caps as being a strike against Internet movie rentals (Apple TV, etc.) to protect their own video on demand service.

[John in Norway]

What about security? Those damn Swedes have just passed a law allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry to snoop at anything that passes across their borders and doesn't your mad president and his megalomaniac cronies do the same?

I'll stick with my encrypted folders on my hard disks.
What, don't you believe all my scribblings will be published one day?

[Jon Dee]

Hi James - I am using Basecamp very heavily at the moment for project management. Would be great if they had Google Gears for this so that you could add to it offline, but this website is better than anything else that I've seen and used for ages.

Has anyone else on JKontherun used the Basecamp web site?

[Curtis Carmack]

I also like to have my data locally and in the cloud. Lately I just keep my various computers synced up with SugarSync so I can work on a document on any of them and it updates the others (useful for us Mac/Windows dualists; still waiting for Linux support), plus it updates the cloud version. What I don't yet have is the "portable" access of using a cloud application to access and edit a document in my own cloud space. For example, I would love to be able, while on the road, to use Adobe's BuzzWord to access and edit an MS Word doc located in my SugarSync cloud. I'm afraid we're still aways off from that, given the lack of incentive for cloud app providers to allow access to third party storage. Box.net allows something like this, but not quite fully there yet given the limited apps that are currently supported.