I've been a "Cloud"-skeptic ever since I first heard of the idea. Cloud computing has its uses - Dropbox for example is excellent - but I've always maintained that anyone who entrusts their backups and data integrity to a third-party is a fool, and a double-damned fool if (s)he has no idea where their backups are being stored.
Of course people will get caught up in the buzzwords, hype and frenzy over a "new" technology at which point over-excitable middle-management types get over-excited and start demanding cloud storage this and cloud applications that, rather than listen to people they pay a considerable amount to consult on such matters and who might actually know what they're talking about.
So I feel my skepticism has been completely vindicated by this news item:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/1 ... k_hitachi/ Trust Microsoft to be involved in such a ball-drop, but never mind that. I shall now be able to scare over-excitable middle-management types senseless with tales of "
what happened when the Cloud burst".
If you have any cloud based storage, take my advice and take a local backup sooner rather than later and keep it up to date!