Paul Sakuma / AP Photo
Steve Jobs officially launched Apple’s new free iCloud service on Monday, which will replace its $99 a year MobileMe document-sharing plan. “We are going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud,” Jobs said at Apple’s World Wide Development Conference in San Francisco. The iCloud will store music and other documents on large digital servers instead of your own hard drives, and users can connect to the network anywhere they have internet access.
Now this sounds neat! Free cloud space. What is it supposed to do? Inquiring minds want to know. More importantly, will it jump-start the Apple stocks that have been laggards lately?
Cloud info from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/icloud-cloud-computing-services-promise-to-change-the-way-we-use-computers/2011/06/06/AGBdTgKH_story.html?hpid=z2
I’m not a fan of cloud computing.
For people like my parents or less technically savvy people sure. It’s a great idea. You don’t have to worry about backups. You can just use a high speed connection to access the files you need from any device knowing that it’s in a centralized vault.
You’re vulnerable to a (governmental) pen register. Governmental searches of the data at the hosting facility. Employee snooping of your files. *If* a ripped song or some other pirated file were part of your locker they might identify quickly via a hash. Availability of resources is based on high speed internet and not let’s say the congested AT&T wireless network. What if the hosting facility fails?
I get the appeal. I wouldn’t mind using it as a bulk storage site (if free) and if I submitted only one large dump file that was encrypted.
Personally, I’d rather just store everything on my own devices, set up a file server (if I needed it), back it up to an external storage device (DVD-R, WD Passport HDD, etc) [all encrypted of course] and then further protect the data by placing explosives on them.
But, that’s just how I roll.
Interesting, Marin. thanks for your input. So what is your opinion of Carbonite? I think it is better than sliced bread.
@marinm
You really want to put a blasting cap/detonator that close to that much electricity?
Thermite is the way to go.
Thermite grenades are the way to go but I didn’t want to get into too many specifics and get ‘flagged’ for a visit by our wonderful DHS.
I personally don’t like the idea of a client-side application that manages what files are being backed up to a physical location I don’t have control over. But, if you ask me if it’s a sound solution for let’s say.. my parents or other family members? Sure. Means I have to do less technical support for them and they’ll have those important files they seem to always lose – backed up. So, the IT guy in me says “Marinm recommended”. The IS guy in me says, “Trust no one unless you have them by the short curly’s and even then have a contingency plan to destroy it all {so you don’t get Weinered haha}
I encourage people to use encryption as much as they can.
Did you answer me about Carbonite and I was too dumb to realize it? Is it a thermite grenade?
Greek here.
Yes, sorry.
The way Carbonite works it uses a client-side application (a program you have to run on your desktop) that will automagically keep Carbonite updated with the files it needs to backup. For me personally, I don’t like losing control of what my system is doing and turning it over to a program that I may not entirely trust.
But, for people like my parents or extended family members I would encourage them to use it as it makes calls for technical support (me) less frequent because the program does things on ‘auto-pilot’ for them.
The thermite grenade part was for Cargo as it’s a way to destroy material before it falls into enemy hands.
With services like Google Music, iCloud, etc I can see Carbonite’s market share shrinking. But, thats just my opinion