If everything is in the cloud, desktop and apps, then what does support do for a living and what are the new set of challenges this presents? On the face of it, cloud computing solves a lot of problems. Centralised computing, ease of management and update, a managed service approach that reduces the need for in-house expertise …

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Thursday 24th March 2011 11:32 GMT Matt K

Not just US export control..

...I'd guess for many readers on this site "the most prominent and common reason" for concern will be European data protection regulations and local financial regulations. For example, and I'm a bit hazy on the wording, the FSA's SYSC handbook generally says that you can't outsource your responsibility for systems and controls.

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Thursday 24th March 2011 11:32 GMT Anonymous Coward

Stop saying cloud.

Does anyone from a technical background actually use the term 'Cloud Computing'? Pretty much everyone I know agrees it's another bollocks marketing term to describe an idea that's as old as the hills.

Referring to it as 'Fog Computing' in front of buzzword non-techie folk is quite fun however.

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1. Thursday 24th March 2011 12:12 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  An old one but a good one
  
  ... and worth repeating everytime some C-level cretin suggests a cloud based approach;
  
  Cloud computing is vapourware.
  
  Hand over control of your applications, and data, to a bunch of anonymous crooks somewhere beyond your control on the web... Crooks who - hand on heart - promise to look after it carefully without ever peeking at it, or selling it to someone with a bigger wallet?
  
  Please, for heaven sake, pull the other one.
  
  Cloud computing is a comfort blanket for clueless idiots..
  
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  1. Thursday 24th March 2011 13:12 GMT BorkedAgain
    
    @AC: Yeah, whatever.
    
    Change the record...
    
    (Oh, and would you have the balls to call your own C-level a "cretin" to his face and un-anonymised? Didn't think so...)
    
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2. Thursday 24th March 2011 12:12 GMT Solomon Grundy
  
  Agree
  
  The term "Cloud Computing" is just another marketing word. Nothing substantially new vs. what tech companies have been promising since the '70's. I do like "Fog Computing" though!
  
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3. Friday 25th March 2011 09:51 GMT The Fuzzy Wotnot
  
  Nope!
  
  It's basically mainframe applications on terminals all over again. Sure the network is bigger and the apps are more shiny than a VT100/DEC terminal but the principle is the same thing.
  
  I do love the idea of "fog computing", the idea of fumbling around in the mist, no idea where you are or where you're going is superb, cheers for that!!
  
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Thursday 24th March 2011 14:39 GMT OffBeatMammal

anyone remember "The Network is the Computer"

this is the same story being spun again.

without local OS, local applications and desktop:cloud sync that actually works this is buying a whole lot of trouble.

The ChromeOS Cr48 is a great example. Works fine on with a connection, but... no wifi/Verizon coverage and it turns into a paperweight

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Friday 25th March 2011 12:34 GMT PeterM42

The trouble with Clouds........

....is they are just vapour and subject to the vagaries of the wind and weather,

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Friday 25th March 2011 12:35 GMT Robert Carnegie

I get it

"If your salesmen and managers can't work on a Boeing 777 over the Atlantic, you're likely to hear some whining."

Really? I mean, really? Wouldn't they rather watch the movie? Whatever, ask them if they still have their earplugs, apply as directed to yourself.

"Cloud computing" as I understand it is dumb-client and the-network-is-the-computer, but outsourced; your data is served over the worldwide Internet and you don't have to choose, cas!re, or know where it actually is. Or, more realistically, you buy space inside a vast server hosting farm somewhere, and your business options probably include transferring the lot to a different hosting service whilst running effectively unchanged from your point of view.

For robustness or high availability, you may double up everything so that your business data resides on two or more such hosting services, independently, so that they don't break simultaneously. For instance, only one of the data centres is next to a nuclear power plant a short distance from the sea in Japan.

Yes, you rely on Internet access (and your electricity supply) to run your business, and so, yes, you make that extremely robust - with multiple ways to get to the Internet. Well, I'm assuming that your office is network-cabled as -well- as wi-if'ed and 3G'ed.

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Friday 25th March 2011 13:27 GMT AdamH

Agree

I get a little bit of sick in my mouth every time the Microsoft ad comes on TV...... the one that says ".....to the cloud!". URRGH! There it is again

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Friday 1st April 2011 11:34 GMT Anonymous Coward

Boys and Girls...

Cloud = Marketing Buzzword.

Personally, I smell the wheel being reinvented and we move to a "21st Century Mainframe" environment.

I'm still programming the Mainframe that my ex-non-technical Manager told me would be replaced in 5 years. That was in 1995.

As an old Mainframer said

"If it hasn't got MF on the side for Mother Fxxxing Mainframe, then WE don't know how to program it - and YOU youngsters ain't gonna get rid of it quickly"

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