Google Apps, or saving your (data) under your mattress
Do you trust Google with your data? Do you trust your bank with your money? Yes, I know it’s not exactly the same, but no doubt there were a lot of people who were reluctant to put their money in banks when they first became an option.
The analogy is actually not all that far off. If you were to keep your money under your mattress, think of some of the things you would have to do to make it safe. You would have to ensure nobody could break in to your house, you would have to make sure it was protected if your house burned down, and you would have to periodically check to make sure it was still there. You would earn no interest on your money - the equivalent of having no new functionality automatically added to your system as time went on. And if you moved to a different house, or got a new bed - you would have to be concerned about moving the money and “reinstalling” it. Sounds like the kind of problems an in-house IT department has to deal with.
Do you really think that Fred the internal IT guy, or Joe’s Network Service Company has a better shot at protecting your stuff than Google? Keeping it secure? Making sure it is available? I don’t think so. Consider this: if Google messed with your security, privacy or availability, they would be out of business in a very big hurry. It’s just not going to happen.
The Economist has some interesting comments on this subject:
‘Security concerns, Mr Benioff implies with a wink, are red herrings thrown by ageing IT bosses trying to justify their salaries. They will, after all, be out of a job if companies no longer maintain their own big data centres. Mr Sannier agrees. The old IT bosses “can’t possibly embrace this idea unless they’re getting ready to retire,” as his own predecessor did after decades in the job. But at 45, Mr Sannier believes the trend is inevitable, and his job requires him to get on top of it.’
Tags: data, economist, Google, Google Apps, mattres, money, save, save data, trust