The Death of Blogger: Why "The Cloud" Isn't Perfect Either

Blogger went down for regularly scheduled maintenance Wednesday, and everything seemed to be just fine . . . until the entire site went down indefinitely and without much explanation. According to Huffington Post, it was "nearly 24 hours of down time," but it felt like forever. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all full of "Blogger is down" messages for me.

But there's more to this story than frustrated bloggers. This is coming right after Google's official unveiling of the Chromebook. (Take a look at Slate.com's 40-second video.) The Chromebook is all about what's called "the cloud," an imaginary, floating, indestructible, impossible-to-lose, immortal area of space on the Internet where you, according to Google, ought to move all of your business because the Internet never dies. Or something like that.

The cloud has its benefits: you can access it from any computer with internet (or phone!). If your computer dies, your data remains unharmed. If someone logs onto your computer, they can't just grab the files off your hard drive. It seems like the smart, safe, technologically sound way to go, right?

As evidenced by Blogger's dismal performance week, the cloud is not as perfect as Google claims. The cloud does not float in space. Your data is stored in a physical location which is still subject to all the dangers its subject to on your own computer, short of you defenestrating your computer. If Google screws something up, your data is lost (or just inaccessible). Imagine if your entire business was stored in the cloud! It should also be noted that any decent hacker could steal your data out of the cloud too, whether physically at your computer or not.

So what do I suggest? Use both. I'm not particularly good at keeping my blog posts anywhere but in the cloud, but much of the other things I write are stored in multiple locations. And all of the really important writing I keep copies of in the cloud (Facebook, Google, and other places), on my hard drive, printed (or hand-written), and on flash drives. Just like you wouldn't put your spare key(s) on the same keyring as your "usual key(s)," if it's a file you really don't want to lose, it's a good idea to always keep a spare copy somewhere else.