An excellent question and guaranteed to elicit a more informative answer than “Is the Cloud safe?” as that is akin to asking “Is Skydiving a safe sport?”… It is all about perspective and if we accept that businesses are the product of their owners experiences, what suits one business in terms of computing strategy will not suit another.
What is it anyway? Basically, Cloud computing is internet-based computing, so your computer “stuff” (data, software programs, server, etc.) is stored on a computer or a bunch of linked (networked) computers that are not physically located in the same place as you. You interact with your “stuff” via an internet connection.
This site http://www.interoute.com/cloud-article/what-cloud-computing has some excellent articles if you would like to learn more about what Cloud Computing really is.
Whether the Cloud is for you…or not will depend on how you feel about the answers to the following, additional questions that should be asked whenever someone suggests you “need to move to the cloud” or “need to move to XYZ program”
We’ve created a simple table and allocated answers based on the features of some well known accounting software products. [insert hyperlink to google drive]
The fact is, the “Cloud” is as safe as your office is safe and carries probably a similiar number of security risks… they are simply different. If you are comfortable using Internet Banking, Dropbox, gmail, hotmail, facebook, google docs and the like in your business, chances are you will be comfortable with Cloud accounting. If you would like to know more follow this thread as we will continue to post articles about Cloud and the pros and cons.
BTW It is actually, 0.0007 fatalities per 1000 jumpers, compared to road fatalities of .0516 per 1000 drivers …. Apparently you have more chance of dying driving to the sky dive jump site then from the jump itself!
