
Asking "should we trust the cloud" is like asking "should we trust horseless carriages" - arthurk
http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/2009/01/27/AskingShouldWeTrustTheCloudIsLikeAskingShouldWeTrustHorselessCarriages.aspx
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Scriptor
This guy is pulling "facts" out of thin air left and right.

 _The average person doesn't trust computers, automobile mechanics or lawyers_

Hello? Statistics? Data? Evidence? I guess those are obsolete too now that we
have the cloud. You see Dare, unlike with automobile mechanics, people have an
alternative with things like storage. They have plenty of easily available
storage right on their computer. Also, people don't trust mechanics with
charging a fair price. To apply the mechanics analogy to clouds, it would be
like a mechanic that goes out of business and takes your car with him, never
to return again.

 _Given the massive adoption of the Web from search engines and e-commerce
sites to Web-based email and social networking services, it is clear that the
average computer person trusts the cloud enough to part with their personal
information and their money._

Search engines have _nothing_ to do with giving up personal information. Web-
based email has been successful because people associate email is very much
associated with the web (think of all the sites that need to email you in some
way). In what sense are social networks cloud-like?

 _the average computer user doesn't have a data backup strategy than it is
likely to occur if their information is stored on some Web company's servers_

Another unjustified claim. Giving a personal anecdote is not proof.

Articles like these make me more and more confused about what the cloud really
is. Is it just about storing information online? In that case, this entire
phenomenon is hyped up several degrees more than "web 2.0" and should be
thought of as nothing more than marketing-speak. Storing information online is
nothing to be excited about, how sexy does "cloud" sound when you realize it
just means some data is saved on a network of servers somewhere.

