Why our data is always our responsibility

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The one thing I spend a good chunk of my day on is “the cloud”…who doesn’t? Right?

No, not using Facebook, or Gmail…reading, writing, listening to customers, talking to co-workers…trying to get an understanding of how the cloud impacts Seagate and our customers, plans, products…well, everything.  I’m not about to go into details as to everything I have learned. It’s not possible in a single blog post.  One major takeaway I have learned is that we, consumers and businesses alike, need to come to grips with one simple fact.

Our data is and always will be our responsibility…no matter where it is stored.

This was made more evident than ever reading this post by Jeffrey Carr on O’Reilly Radar:  “Why cloud services are a tempting target for attackers“, where Jeff talks about the terms of service for the world’s largest cloud providers: responsibility for a breach of customer data lies exclusively with the customer.

But this is only one example.

When it comes to choosing the right storage for our laptops, desktops, servers, or networks, the type of storage, performance, warranty, reliability all come into question. Why? Because ultimately, we are relying on the product to hold and protect our data, our content, our assets.  Our data is our responsibility… why else would we be bombarded with backup, backup, backup messages over the past decade? In fact, the backup message alone may haven given birth to the cloud computing phenomenon we have today.

But the cloud is much more than backup. It’s evolving to become not only the storage of choice for many consumers and businesses alike, but the compute method of choice.  We are not only storing our data in the cloud, we are creating our data in the cloud. We’re just moving the location from local to, well, not local. So, why have we thrown the type of storage, performance, warranty, and reliability questions we had in the past out the window?  Do we really care what our data is being stored on? Do we care anymore about how fast it is, or how long it will last?

The short answer… no, but we will.

The cloud is – for lack of a better description – becoming our data center, our infrastructure, our content hub…and storage in all of its forms has never been more important. I’ll talk about this more and more, and provide some real-life examples  in future posts on the cloud, so stay tuned.

Do you know what type of drive you have on your desktop?  Do you know what type you have in the cloud? I do, and I don’t.

Related Posts:

The invisible second economy (for servers and storage)
Is Bitcasa just a bit before its time? Maybe, but maybe not
Cloud security gets the ultimate test
The incredible disappearing hard drive

2011-12-06T12:25:34+00:00

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5 Comments

  1. Erik Riedel February 25, 2012 at 5:03 am - Reply

    Mark,

    Completely agree with your post – personal stewardship is the only lens that makes sense for your personal data. True for protection from loss and protection for privacy.

    A group of folks discussed this in a heated panel session during CES last month:

    http://er1p.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/it-takes-a-village-to-protect-your-data/

    various products and technology can help, but it has to be driven by “personal stewardship.”

    -Erik

    • Mark Wojtasiak February 27, 2012 at 10:30 am - Reply

      Thanks Erik and thanks for the link to the discussion. – Mark

  2. […] Is the cloud and the marketing push to store all of your content elsewhere doing away with the pride we once felt in what we accumulated over the years, and with it the personal responsibility for protecting our content?  Sure, your content is still on hard drives in some data center, but you don’t own the data center, you don’t have something you can touch and feel that is in your control, and is your responsibility. In fact, most cloud providers will still put the responsibility in your hands when it comes to protecting your content, but how can we if we don’t have much control?  See: Why our data is always our responsibility. […]

  3. […] Guest post by: Paul Steele – General Manager – Seagate Recovery Services Today, Seagate launched a unique, first-of-its-kind, program. The new program, called Seagate® Rescue & Replace, launched initially in the U.S., and eventually to consumers worldwide. The Rescue and Replace subscription plans are designed to make it easy for our customers to get the help they need when they need it the most. . The program builds on Seagate’s best-in-industry recovery success rates to ensure that our customers have additional “peace of mind” by addressing customers’ biggest fear, data loss. . The program will offer Seagate customers the opportunity to purchase comprehensive hardware protection that includes coverage for accidental damage from handling and data-recovery protection inside a single offer. Plans will be effective from date of purchase for length of terms of two, three and four years. Prices for Rescue and Replace range from 39.99 USD for 2 years of coverage to 54.99 USD for a 4 year plan. This is an incredibly good value for consumers given that data recovery on a single hard drive can cost as much as $2,000 for recovery from an outside service. . Check it out. . Related Posts: . Why our data is always our responsibility […]

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