Project 03

When choosing whether to store information with a third party cloud computing service or to maintain and manage that information yourself, there are many tradeoffs to consider. One thing to consider is that there are things that a third party may be able to do better and more efficiently than you can. A third party might be able to secure your information better than you can. However, if you maintain the data yourself, you have more control over and do not risk the third party giving up or selling off your information. Personally, prior to our readings and in class discussions over these topics I did not think much of the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing. That being said, I have always and will continue to trust third parties with my information.
I believe that for some people it would be worth it to manage their own private cloud service. For some businesses and people, it is imperative that they always have full control over all of their data and, therefore, would and should chose to maintain their own private service. However, I do not fall into this category. For me, the convenience having a third party manage my information for me far out values any of the benefits a privately run cloud service would provide me. In addition, as a non-computer science major, I am not as familiar with the ins and outs of how exactly cloud computing works. I would not trust myself to set up and maintain a private cloud service for myself. It can also be very expensive to set up and manage the infrastructure necessary for a person or business to have a private service. Outsourcing to a third party is often more cost-efficient and convenient.

Probably the most well-known and worried about tradeoff that individuals make when choosing to use a third party cloud service is privacy. Many cloud services are “free” in the sense that they do not charge you a monetary amount for their services. However, by choosing to use these services they may use your information and data for advertising and other means of profiting from your business. This tradeoff is one that I am willing to make. I believe that these third party cloud services providers ultimately have their customers best interests in mind, as if they did not and continued to violate those individuals’ privacy and did not have adequate security measures, they would go out of business. With data breaches on the rise, for those with more valuable information than myself and who choose to use a third party service, it is important to be careful of what data they provide these providers. For many, including myself, the risk of data loss and privacy infringement is a tradeoff we are willing to make due to the superior efficiency and convenience of these services. I believe that giving third party cloud computing providers access to some of our data is a fair exchange for the benefits of their services.

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