Arcus Global
January 23, 2012
Image: nuchylee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
An interesting post at the Software Advice (website) blog on Public Sector and the Cloud was recently pointed out to me and it got me to thinking about the differences between the Public Sectors in the UK and the USA. It also brought to the fore the similarities.
In the post Michael Koploy discusses the security fears associated with hosting data in the cloud, he says:
There is a widespread perception, if not reality, that data stored in the Cloud is more vulnerable to theft. This could be especially problematic with classified or otherwise sensitive information, which is common in the public sector.”
I talked about this issue myself in a recent post and got to thinking that the risks associated with the cloud are no greater than those associated with hosting on dedicated hardware within your organisation.
Mr Koploy’s rationale for thinking about cloud based solutions for the public sector seems to be primarily financial and he points out the benefits of such a platform very well but eventually seems to conclude that there will come a time when some form of equilibrium is reached with cloud based solutions coexisting with traditional enterprise software. I guess I can sort of agree with that though writing this post is the first time I’ve fired up Word (I guess that could be called enterprise software) ever on this machine as I usually write in HTML in my favourite text editor (even now I’m going to have to export this and sort out the apostrophes and quotation marks), I’ve found very few use-cases where using an application on my local machine is better than using one based in the cloud except when it comes to development. That may change eventually though…
His focus is also in terms of Procurement, a realm we have some experience of in terms of our e-Procura/The Arcus Global Process Engine (See our site for an overview) solution.
I guess the major difference between his consideration and mine was a possible distrust of the Government of another nation. Perhaps the recent overturn of SOPA and PIPA should make us rest a little easier? Perhaps if the same fate befalls similar legislation (I’m looking at you ACTA) then all of my paranoia will be assuaged.
