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I find it infinitely frustrating to hear a technology person complain about cloud computing. They usually state security as the biggest hurdle to their adoption. I agree that security is a major problem with cloud technologies, but it's no more of a problem than with any Internet-exposed service. Every service that "faces" the Internet is less secure, but you must accept certain risks to be able to function and move forward in business and your personal life. The cloud is a tool and an asset, but many of you probably disagree.
The cloud, for me, is a means of getting things done no matter where I am or which device I'm using. Cloud applications allow me to work on any device, even a borrowed one, without having to reset my entire environment or get used to someone else's configurations and settings. Before having cloud applications to manage my passwords, infrastructure, backups, contacts, mobile applications, and creative application suite, I had to carry around a fully loaded laptop computer with a local password manager or text file full of credentials rather than a small netbook or Chromebook containing little more than an operating system.
A few years ago, my wife bought me a Chromebook. Being an experimental type of person, I decided to use only that Chromebook, and nothing else, for one month to see if someone could truly be 100 percent reliant on it and the cloud for everything. I'm happy to report that it worked. I edited documents and created and edited images, podcasts, and video files on the Chromebook with web-based and cloud-based applications. I also had the peace of mind of knowing that if I lost the laptop, my information would be safe. The opposite would be true with a standard laptop. I prefer to "travel light," and web-based and cloud-based applications allow me to do so with confidence.
Sure, one of the downsides of operating purely in the cloud means you must make some sacrifices, such as having limited
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