Baby, meet Bath Water.  Wink 

 

Companies trust their data to external environments all the time.  They generally do not trust ALL their data to these environments, for good reasons.  But they generally do trust SOME of their data.  It's a good dialogue to have - what data is ok in the cloud? -- but as cloud computing is maturing, we also need to have a more nuanced conversation about trust and the cloud.  The question of when will everything move to the cloud has largely been answered... it's not likely going to happen. 

 

The Cloud represents a new generation of computing paradigm, but like the platform paradigms that have come before (mainframe, mini computer, PC, client-server, web - all of which are still around) we should not expect the cloud to replace everything that came before it.  


The question to ask is what data *would* make sense in the cloud?  Or even better, what parts of my technology and data portfolio should live in the cloud? 

 

It's a good discussion topic, and there's no one right answer for everyone.  Since Windows Azure has been purposefully designed interoperate/span across on-premise boundaries, there are many options on the continuum between cloud and on-premise. 

 

BTW, with highly automated service provisioning and data center operations, ISO 27001 certification, SAS70 certification, etc... the Microsoft data centers that run Windows Azure are probably "safer" and more reliable than many other environments.    More than safety and reliability, what you give up to some degree is loss of direct control. 

 

Finally, a note on the Danger mishap (which is not to be taken lightly): that system is a legacy Java, Oracle, Sun system  that Microsoft acquired when it bought Danger... it does not reflect on Windows Azure.  Fortunately, it looks like user data will be restored... which, ironically (and unfortunately), does NOT seemt to be true for the data that users of Mac's Snow Leopard lost due to the Mac's bug (on a machine fully controlled by the user).