Check out the Dell Store on CNETReporters' Roundtable Podcast: Cloud 'dangers'
This week we are covering the dangers of cloud computing. Get it? With the major loss of consumer data for the Sidekick smartphone users--the Sidekick is made by Danger, a Microsoft company--the whole idea of "cloud" safety has been brought front and center for consumers.
Businesses, likewise, are wondering if they are exposed to similar risks when they put their apps and data in the cloud.
Can we trust the cloud?
Our guests to discuss this topic are CNET senior writer Stephen Shankland and Christofer Hoff, author of the Rational Survivability blog, which is about this very topic. Hoff is director of cloud and emerging solutions at Cisco System and thus has a vested interest in keeping the cloud safe and profitable.
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Reporters' Roundtable #7: The dangers of the cloud
Show notes and talking points...
Shankland, you just came from the Gartner conference, what's the take from there?
Hoff, what happened with the Sidekick outage? Was it a failure of "the cloud"?
There have been real cloud failures. Amazon AWS has had outages, and CTO Werner Vogel had to hit the road to beg forgiveness. What happened there?
Discuss other failures? Gmail, Magnolia, Swissdisk.
A question for small business: is your data safe when it's intermingled with other companies' stuff?
Discuss new and fun ways clouds could fail.
Two kinds of failure: Failure to access and real data loss.
The consumer dilemma: safety vs. lack of privacy, control. Discussion.
The business dilemma: cost vs. control, security and compliance. Discussion.
How do you know you can trust a cloud provider?
What skills are needed by customers?
Hoff recommends: Cloud Security Alliance
Next time on the Roundtable:
Tim O'Reilly and David Carnoy on "The future of the book." Don't miss it!
Comments to: roundtable@cnet.com
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe.
Rafe Needleman is editor of CNET's Webware. He's been covering technology since 1988, and has interviewed thousands of tech execs. He blogs at 
One very common example is merchant dispute/fraud. You see a bogus charge on your credit card. You complain and the card issuer immediately credits your account while they investigate.
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by JasonM80
October 26, 2009 3:38 PM PDT
- Great video! Very informative discussion with a lot of great points raised.
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(4 Comments)The discussion around the bank analogy is an interesting one. While it is true that lost data is harder to replace than money, I would also argue that data can be backed up, while you can't make copies of your money (at least legally :-)). If your data service fails and you have a backup in place, your loss is minimal. If your bank loses your money, you are out of luck.
If J34S doesn't mind, I'd like to instead compare data in the cloud to data related to your bank account. Your bank account data contains lots of important, personal information. Some of it is easily replacable if lost (your mother's maiden name, your address, your social security number), but some of it isn't (your transaction record, your balance, etc.). We trust banks to store this data and they are vulnerable to all of the challenges facing cloud computing service providers.