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National Cloud Computing Day - Joining in?

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DuaneJackson

DuaneJackson

Free Member
Jul 14, 2005
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Brighton / London
Today we put out a press release announcing "National Cloud Computing Day" on 12/12/08.

The idea is that for the day, the only application you use on your desktop will be a web-browser to access web based applications.

For accounting there is ofcourse KashFlow, I've listed a few apps for other areas on our blog at http://blog.kashflow.co.uk/ and it's listed as a Facebook event at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=35664877484

Are you going to give it a go? Or are there not enough apps out there to make it practical for you?
 
Duane, I would disagree with this bit:

"there's no need to implement software upgrades"

If you have an insecure browser, you may be vulnerable. And many of the apps are insecure, eg; not https://
 
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Hi Ling,

True I guess. But there's no need to upgrade the apps themselves. Any web-app used for sensitive data should always be https:// - I know some aren't though. Very naughty.
 
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DuaneJackson said:
Hi Ling,

True I guess. But there's no need to upgrade the apps themselves. Any web-app used for sensitive data should always be https:// - I know some aren't though. Very naughty.
Click to expand...


Are we as users able to change any of the settings on our computers to make access via https:// rather than http:// or is this something which is down to the provider?
 
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dp0848 said:
Are we as users able to change any of the settings on our computers to make access via https:// rather than http:// or is this something which is down to the provider?
Click to expand...

It's down to the provider. They need to implement a security certificate at their end to encrypt the data between your browser and their servers.
 
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DuaneJackson said:
It's down to the provider. They need to implement a security certificate at their end to encrypt the data between your browser and their servers.
Click to expand...

Although it is only the the connection that is secure. If someone is running an unpatched op sys or an out of date browser etc, then however secure the connection, the data could be being read and stolen at the user's end.
 
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LINGsCARS said:
Although it is only the the connection that is secure. If someone is running an unpatched op sys or an out of date browser etc, then however secure the connection, the data could be being read and stolen at the user's end.
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True, but the same applies to your own computers.

And what do you think is more likely to be unpatched or unprotected? Joe Bloggs Windows Vista machine running Zone Alarm or our montored Windows Server 2003 boxes sitting behind a top of the range hardward firewall with intrusion detection, etc.

Re-reading your post, I wonder if you are talking about the users system being insecure rather than the provider? If it is insecure, then that's still going to be insecure even if they don't use cloud computing.

But if they are using products like KashFlow then atleast the data is stroed somewhere secure (and no, a keylogger wouldn't get their login details)
 
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DuaneJackson said:
Hi Ling,

True I guess. But there's no need to upgrade the apps themselves. Any web-app used for sensitive data should always be https:// - I know some aren't though. Very naughty.
Click to expand...

Some will say any app used for sensitive data should always be Offline. :rolleyes: The security of "Cloud based applications" is largely unknown, as vendors rarely give details of bug fixes, or system intrusions. I don't know what the physical security of the site, your offices, your staff at the office, nor the people involved with looking after the server.

Take Gmail, everyone knows of massive hacks on user accounts, but do you hear it from Google themselves? No, its bad for business. Most of Google services have been riddled with holes, and its right across the board, not limited to just one application.

If a company the size of Google can't secure their systems, why should we trust anyone else?
 
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Quite funny really though how progress is revolutionary, zoom back to 33 years ago when a young bill gates and paul allen were writing programs on a usr33 teletype, a dumb terminal if you like which connected over a wide area network to mainframes housed in a data centre where users rented processing time. Here we are today and 'cloud' is being heralded as the new big thing!

Of course everyone knows the web, or thin client is the future, its been mooted for years , the idea that you should use a PC as an appliance, like a toaster, your toaster goes bang you unplug it, buy a new one and plug that in and off you go again, you dont spend days fixing toaster OS problems :)
 
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I tell you what, using just your browser rather than any desktop apps isn't that bad. I can patch into our Exchange server, use Google apps, and all of our websites are browser admin'd anyway. Good stuff.

Anyone else trying it?
 
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TBH, I'm surprised how much of what I do is already in the cloud. Outlook Web Access for my email, then our own admin area for KashFlow which is obviously in the cloud.

Had to do some spreadsheet work earlier. Hate to admit it, but Google Apps is a bit pants.
 
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DuaneJackson said:
TBH, I'm surprised how much of what I do is already in the cloud. Outlook Web Access for my email, then our own admin area for KashFlow which is obviously in the cloud.

Had to do some spreadsheet work earlier. Hate to admit it, but Google Apps is a bit pants.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's not great, but the sharing side of it is nice.

Photoshop / InDesign is pretty frustrating through Remote Desktop Connection...! :eek:
 
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Microsoft at the moment are running most of their services online, company's can now if they want have a hosted exchange, sharepoint, office communication server and others. This is Microsofts attempt at the Cloud and work fine.

The other good thing is that you can also intergrate your external exchange with your internal and keep them seperate.

This is all done by microsoft active directory plugin that uses https.

Take a look http://www.microsoft.com/Online/default.mspx
 
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Don't forget to let us know where there doesn't seem to be a decent cloud solution. As I said on my blog, it's as much about what isn't/cant be done online as what is/can.
 
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