An interesting tidbit here. Apparently the city of Los Angeles is contemplating moving their computer networks into the cloud. Namely, Google Apps. Not entirely sure about this one from a privacy aspect.
From Associated Press:
The nation’s second-largest city is considering dumping its in-house computer network for Google Inc. e-mail and office programs that are accessed over the Internet. But the city police union says it doesn’t have enough information to determine if sensitive witness and investigation files will be secure from hackers.
I would like to believe that this would be a viable option for Los Angeles but, there have been a few too many issues with respects to Google app security to leave me, and others, with a sense of calm.
I agree there are a number of security issues. Politically, all that it takes is one major hack before the decision to move the City of LA data to the cloud will be challenged.
I’m curious what the State of California, Department of Justice who manages LAPD’s access to the criminal wants and warrants system has to say about all of this…
I like that someone is trying this, as it will be the best way to see if this works or not.
My issues:
1. Privacy, obviously. Google + Privacy are just not going together. Maybe privacy is dead or will be dead in the future, but that doesn’t mean Google has to be the harbringer… They lost my trust long ago. I include security in this issue.
2. Downtime. What do you do in LA right now when there is downtime for whatever reason? Yell at your own folks. What do you do when Google goes down? Threaten to drop them. There’s a whole big subtle (figure that one out!) difference between yelling at your own people in-house and yelling at a third-party. Most orgs seem to prefer to sue third-parties and yell internally. Oh, and you’ll be at Google’s mercy. No more creative workarounds and solutions in-house..your techs will just shrug and point to the phone when downtime digs into your pockets.
3. When Google decides to change something in their Apps, you better live with it. There won’t be this bitching or organizational sluggishness that you can lean on. This would be like MS Office coming out with 2010 next month and you are forced to adopt it whether you like it or not. Tell that to all the shops still running 2003… (This could be both good and bad.)