Dales Computer Services

Ever heard the term ‘cloud computing’? Basically it works by storing your information (emails, letters, spreadsheets etc.) on an internet based  server rather than on your own PC. You access your data using a browser such as Firefox or Safari. Examples you may have used are Hotmail, Google Mail and Yahoo Mail.

In the past you would collect your emails using a program on your computer and then the emails would be stored on your hard disk but now many services store your emails on their computer and you can read them by using a web browser and logging in. You can read the email and reply to it but it is never actually stored on your computer (and neither is your reply).

Cloud computing is of growing importance and allows you to have access to all your data wherever you are on the planet. The benefits to users are fairly obvious – it is not dependent on the computer you own. You can access documents from a Windows PC, a Mac or, for the geeky, a Linux PC and even mobile phones and personal organisers. Many of these services are ostensibly free. The big disadvantage is that you have to trust the companies with your data: ie. a stable service, reliable storage and keeping your data private). You also need to have reasonable broadband to make it work and generally the web based programs are not as feature rich as normal desktop programs.

So why am I wittering about this now? I was reading an article the other day about a telephone called Sidekick (by T-Mobile). It uses cloud computing to store customers’ address books, emails, documents etc. and uses Microsoft’s services to do so. Fine you might think but the other day those servers had a big problem and as a result many Sidekick customers have lost all of their data (apparently Microsoft didn’t keep usable backups). I had a similar experience a number of years ago when I set up my first website on Microsoft’s servers and lost everything when there was a glitch. I no longer trust Microsoft (or any other third party) to safeguard my important data.

Lesson – if you use a web based email or web based documents such as Google Docs or Microsoft Office Live Workspaces then do make sure you keep copies of all your emails and files on your own computer. These big companies claim to care about your data but when push comes to shove these services are purely revenue streams for them. If your data is lost it may briefly be an embarrassment to them but they won’t really be bothered. For you it could be a nightmare if you lose all of your emails or all of your other documents.