Cloud = Fear

It seems for some if we can’t touch it, see it or hold it in our hands, then we fear it.

I have recently heard many well-known tech journalists bringing up the topic of The Cloud is doomed due to the downtime and hacks.  This of course has come up again with the recent incident of Google and China.

Cloud Computing offers some real advantages when It comes to accessing our information from multiple locations and making us hopefully more productive.  Here are some things that I believe to be true and some tips when using Cloud Computing:

• Nothing is Secure.

• If you are looking for security, then you may want to stay away from the Internet and keep your information in a lock box.  Anytime you let your information out whether its by electronic means or via snail mail you run the risk of other people getting a hold of it.  But there are ways that you can decrease your exposure.

• Email -  Consider using encryption technology

• Backups -  Rule of thumb: “If you don’t have 3 copies of a document, then it doesn’t exist”. Use offline backups such as Mozy and Carbonite.

• Use well-known companies.

• • One of the biggest and well founded fears, became apparent when we saw these URL Shorten services hit the net.  The immediate question that hit is what happens to my content when the service goes belly up.  Even though picking the right service to use are similar to playing Russian roulette, it is a very important step.

• Plan on Down-Time.

• • Nothing made by man is perfect!  Expect failures and plan for them.  We come back to backups again.  When it comes to web mail, consider having more than one way to access your important email addresses.  Many will set up an extra email account on their own web server or with another company and have your email forwarded to this account.  You can also set up a desktop client, but this seems like it’s defeating the purpose of using an online email service.

Cloud applications have a lot to offer and this really holds true when it comes to small businesses.  Having your data available from any place can make the difference between success or failure.  But as with any form of technology; know your risks.