Cloud Apps Flawed?

dekh

In an ideal world I can see huge benefits to having documents and apps web based.

Problem is when you lose connectivity - everything in the office grinds to a halt.

Worst I have seen is with web based workflow systems. The organisation absolutely relies on the internet hosted app. When the internet goes the work stops.

Even with redundant ADSL connections to different ISPS when the council or utility company dig up the telehpone cables it can take weeks to restore and you won't get compensation (well you might for loss of service but not for loss of revenue).

Even with uninterrupted connectivity, you rely upon Google (or whoever) to look after your data. What SLA do you have in place with these providers and where does the data go? It shouldn't go abroad without good reason because that would be a breach of the DP Act. How do you know what they are doing with it, and how much care they are taking of it?

It's a bit of a worrying trend.

DCodd

dekh wrote: »

In an ideal world I can see huge benefits to having documents and apps web based.

Problem is when you lose connectivity - everything in the office grinds to a halt.

Worst I have seen is with web based workflow systems. The organisation absolutely relies on the internet hosted app. When the internet goes the work stops.

Even with redundant ADSL connections to different ISPS when the council or utility company dig up the telehpone cables it can take weeks to restore and you won't get compensation (well you might for loss of service but not for loss of revenue).

Even with uninterrupted connectivity, you rely upon Google (or whoever) to look after your data. What SLA do you have in place with these providers and where does the data go? It shouldn't go abroad without good reason because that would be a breach of the DP Act. How do you know what they are doing with it, and how much care they are taking of it?

It's a bit of a worrying trend.

This is my worry. I probably do not understand the concept properly but if the data and or the app is stored on line then if you lose internet then how do you work? Would you have copies of the data and sotware apps locally for disaster recovery? How easy is it to merge that data once access to the cloud is restored? etc etc

[Deleted User]

'Cloud Computing' isn't a new concept, it has been going on for years in various incarnations just never under the new buzz word everyone's touting. It has been especially popular with smaller businesses who want the features of Microsoft Exchange but who find having a physical server, licences and the additional overhead of having somebody to maintain it uneconomical.

With regards to loss of Internet access, how often does that happen? Here, we have had more internal network issues that prevent people being able to access their files than anything that we have had that require Internet access.

I don't think yet 'Cloud Computing' will completely replace set ups as we have them now, but it is sure giving a lot of flexibility to enable businesses of all sizes to do more for less.

dekh

anewhope wrote: »

With regards to loss of Internet access, how often does that happen? Here, we have had more internal network issues that prevent people being able to access their files than anything that we have had that require Internet access.

Every component in the system has a percentage chance of failure. The more components in the system the higher the down time will be.

Some components in a system are critical.

For instance if you have an exchange server and it goes down you have no email, but if you have a seperate file server people can still log on, access files and do their work. If you have only a single server and it goes down after everyone has finished their paperwork, tidied their desk had a cup of coffee they are then stuck. Having seen this failure a couple of times it usually takes 2 hours before staff are bored.

If you have a single swtich or hub for your network and it goes down again everything stops.

In both these circumstances you are able to effect a repair yourself and are mostly in control of time to fix the issue.

If you use remote, distributed services (cloud) you have added a whole new set of components to the system each has a percentage chance of failure, a lot of them are on the critical path and most of those are beyond your ability to repair (and battling through all the denials and finger pointing can be quite tiring too).

Cable from switch to modem/router
modem/router
cable from modem/router to telephone junction.

These you can fix yourself.

Then there is a significant amount of components between your telephone socket and the exchangesome of them are:

cables to the junction box in the street.
the junction box. - had 2 days down time with this one due to flooding
cable from junction to exchange

Everything in the exchange has a chance to fail, admittedly there is probably redundancy here. - a single failing switch caused 3 days of denial followed by a day to fix. (this was a telewest line not BT)

How many compnents between the exchange and provider?

Each reduces the mean time before failure.

And we've just got to the ISP never mind from the ISP to the application provider.

Marty_J

DCodd wrote: »

This is my worry. I probably do not understand the concept properly but if the data and or the app is stored on line then if you lose internet then how do you work? Would you have copies of the data and sotware apps locally for disaster recovery? How easy is it to merge that data once access to the cloud is restored? etc etc

This video explains it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cyHYEfpRVA

nickj_2

BargainGalore wrote: »

I think M$ are going down this route in the near future

I think thats a bitter war going on here between google and M$

the next ms office will be cloud based

[Deleted User]

nickj wrote: »

the next ms office will be cloud based

Office 2010 is not cloud based, around the same time that it is released Office Web Apps will be launched however they are not the same product.

Marty_J

nickj wrote: »

the next ms office will be cloud based

I don't think the desktop version is going anywhere; it's responsible for much of Microsoft's profits.

Microsoft Office Live is currently in beta.

epninety

I'm a bit suprised that I don't hear lots of people shouting about security in the cloud world, by which I mean confidentiality rather than data integrity. So you now write and store all your docs on a remote server, where it's hard or impossible to know what country (or countries) your data is stored in and what legal frameworks might protect (or not) your privacy.

Why isn't everyone running away screaming?

edgex

Marty_J wrote: »

You can access Google Docs without a web connection.

I use Google Calendar, and it works brilliantly. It syncs with iCal on my Mac and on my iPod Touch, and when I change the calendar on one, it updates it on all the others. It works much better than storing it locally.

thats assuming youve got Google Gears up & running, & have a copy of everything stored locally.

as most people will only ever be accessing work documents from one location, may as well stick to the standard client-server setup that they will aleady have

if remote access is required by some staff, well there are already options to allow that

& at the end of the day, all your work information is still stored on your own servers



dont forget, google have to be getting their revenues from somewhere
if they arnt selling you software, or directly charging for services, wheres it coming from?
adverts
& their best performing adverts will be targetted ones, & in order to do that, they will be analysing anything & everything you store with them.


as for security, how are you as a business going to take responsibility for the data that you no longer have any control over?