Perfection clouds the mind
I can only support Igor's position that The Cloud can only spell Disaster and Recovery.
The problem with the IT boffins' idealistic view of The Cloud is not when it works, but when it does not, which already happens too often. Would you board a plane if it crashed as many times as your computer?
Experience has already demonstrated that systems crashing is a problem, but so are lightening that strikes an exchange, data warehousing centers that fail during heat waves, cables in the street accidentally cut when trenches are dug or roads repaired, storms that collapse antennae, etc. That is reality and its risks must be accounted for, because organisations cannot grind to a halt because "the connection" is temporarily off.
When the connection comes back live, how much has been lost, how long will it take and how much will it cost to get back on track, and how many more IT people will we have to employ to ensure that the engine room continues to function?
Another issue is that of processing speed, in particular in intensive sectors such as the financial sector, where a mix of server and local client processing is necessary to ensure that models or complex transactions are carried out. I wouldn't want to see my 100,000 iteration spreadsheet being dependent on the remote processing, storage and connectivity capability, particularly when I know that so many of my colleagues would be doing the same thing at the same time. Talks about traffic jams should not be underestimated.
Finally, I have been to too many locations on this planet where the Internet connections are non-existent, inconsistent, too slow, too difficult to set up or plainly expensive. In these circumstances, having your data on your hard drive offers significant advantages, not least that of being able to work.
I'm not completely against The Cloud, as it offers a solution worth considering for back-up and file versioning. However, beware of it as the magic wand that it is being sold as, because it could turn your systems into a pumpkin.
