I am going to wax philosophic, just a little, in this blog entry, about cloud computing and technology in general. The concept of cloud computing is highly compelling to say the least. Cloud computing makes team collaboration on files much easier than the traditional means of collaborating through multiple e-mail attachments. This new paradigm will certainly be a welcome respite from the glory days of having to remember to bring floppy discs, CDs, DVDs, or flash drives with you in order to synchronize files between a desktop and laptop or to take a presentation or file(s) outside the office. Of course, as with all things, there are downsides, and cloud computing is certainly no exception. What about the issue of information security and integrity? What is one to do when the servers "in the clouds" fall and go boom, as servers are apt to do, only to realize an important file is online only? Let us not forget the communal panic and anxiety when RIM Blackberry experienced a brownout or two, essentially grinding the lives of people to an absolute halt. Many Crack(berry) users didn't know what to do with themselves, let alone remember how to get in touch with people in the non-Crack(berry) world (horror of horrors, they may have actually had to talk with someone rather than text or email them, lol). It certainly was bizarre to see business people curled up in figurative fetal positions, incapable of making a decision because they weren't able to get information from their Crack(berry).
Technology is a wondrous thing, but one must stop and ask if we rely too heavily, at times, on the newest and greatest computing inventions; it seems as if our lives are continuously marching to the quiet rhythm of 0s and 1s. Just stop and think for a moment about how dependent we are on technology; we have forgotten how to survive in a world without personal computers, the Internet, or cell phones. One might surmise we really are plugged into the Matrix. Technology has made us a lot of promises about how we would comport our day to day lives. However, do we not remember the promise that we would swiftly become a paperless world with the rise of the desktop computer? In reality, we are drowning in paper. Do we not remember the promise that e-tailing web-sites would be the downfall of the modern mall? Sure, we buy more and more from online web-sites, but we still desire the joy of the tactile shopping experience, even as we experience the agony of dealing with everyone else going to or already in the mall. It's just like the Nortel commercial tells us (and I think it's a fantastic commercial narrated by someone with a British accent--everything sounds better and authoritative coming from a Brit, lol), "human's cannot not communicate"; we are all social and feeling creatures.
Does all of this mean that I am advocating a movement back to the pre-desktop computing world? Absolutely not, as I love new technology and its potential. Business is all about pushing boundaries and finding better, easier, faster, and cheaper methods of going about one's business. Technology like this could obviously benefit a startup company or small business that does not have the financial resources to purchase and maintain their own infrastructure as well as benefit the "Average Joe" on the street wanting a simple and centralized location to store important files accessible anywhere by anyone. All I am saying is that we shouldn't totally put our faith in the constant rollout of new technology, as technology can certainly let us down. If we are to start venturing out into the clouds, we still need to make sure that we store multiple backup files on 'older' media on the off chance that servers start falling from the skies above us. In the end, some of those ‘oldies but goodies’ regarding storage media may come in very handy when our newer technologies have their occasional hiccup. Would it really be such a burden to actually store files on flash drives, and walk it over to our co-worker every once in a while? Would it really be such a bad thing for people to stop chatting online or talking with one another on cell phones and actually meet and communicate face to face? I think not.
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