BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

OTR

MacGregor Loc: North America

Think: triple redundancy. External hard storage and chips are huge and cheap nowadays. The "cloud" be damned.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

But any real backup plan needs to have some sort of off site preferably non local backup included to protect against natural or man made disasters... This is where the Cloud, what we in the old days called data centers, can serve a valuable role.

Best,
Todd Ferguson

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

I completely agree with you, but I've worked in the tech industry for more decades than I wish to count. Unfortunately 'cloud' has become a negative term for many while also very frequently completely misunderstood. Before the term 'cloud' became popular (and misused) the terms 'failover' and 'disaster recovery' were in frequent use, yet didn't seem to garner the negative response that the term 'cloud' has for many people. 'Redundancy' was considered to be a good thing. All of these things were more costly than a basic vulnerable system from an acquisition perspective, but the cost of business service failure was usually much higher. Was it the PC and the mass use of computers in the home that changed that thinking?

Subscription pricing used to be the dominant model in many circumstances, until the perpetual license came into play, with the associated misunderstanding that one 'owned' the software, as opposed to the 'right to use' a specific version.

The OP is correct in my opinion, there is no free lunch, and there never has been.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

I always looked at Cloud as a catchy marketing term... I do think it has become negative to many outside the industry.
Yes, people seem to always think if they by a version they own it and the NEVER own it...no matter how old or new it is...

Best,
Todd Ferguson

pendennis

We used remote computing at data centers in the 1970's, and like others, the term "Cloud" doesn't bring security to mind. However, when you reduce the technology to what the cloud really is, most folks really understand. At the time we thought the T1 lines were a quantum leap forward, and they were. Most folks don't even remember teletype connections to data centers before the widespread use of data terminals, and time sharing.

Off site computing used to mean at a data center in the same geographic area. But, when disasters began to take on widespread implications, our IT upper management started thinking in terms of remote in other states. Originally the problem with remote computing, was the speed of communications and real bandwidth. With the advent of fiber optics and speedier satellite up/down links, a lot of the problems evaporated. Even the remoteness of the data center has some issues. It goes with issues such as power access. All the back-up computers and drives are worthless unless you have really high capacity UPS systems capable of hours of power, not minutes. It also helps to have a cheap source of power like hydro. At the first plant I worked in, the UPS took up an entire room, just to back up the dual IBM 360's we had, along with all the peripheral equipment. Even then we only measure usable power in terms of minutes, and not hours. It was to give the operators the chance for EOJ sequences and logical shut downs.

For my own uses I use my desktop disk, a remote disk drive attached to it, a remote attached to my linked laptop, and iDrive. Seems enough for now. I think the next step though, might be to replace my APC UPS with a larger model.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

Actually some software can be assessed as old cars, like any collectible, software packages (real deal disks, manuals, ETC - not pirated code) has monetary value! Price a legitimate copy of Windows 3.0 and you'll see how stupidly we got rid of that "junk". We won't be so hard on Mum for throwing out our baseball cards then! 😉👍

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

I use the "cloud" for transcendent files (needed current among multiple devices), But I damned sure have 3 actual physical copies of any thing that I want to keep!

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

As a customer of Concast (not a misspelling!) I'd like to have the luxury of the lunch I pay for, 😉👍

Rongnongno Loc: FL

WHAT???? The old WFG 3.11 3 1/4 have a value????

I have some old stuff I should look at now.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

It MIGHT, (remember we are talking about REAL original stuff, as ILLEGAL Downloads of all Windows versions are available!) although Windows for Workgroups (Win 3.11) was largely distributed on a corporate level, perhaps more unused copies exist than Windows 3.0 or Win 3.1 A lot of times a single set of disks were used for physical installs, although a multiple set was ordered, The "serial number" on Win 3.x is meaningless on install, so why pop open all copies? A rather different thing happened with Windows 9x, Where an organization would have multiple copies of the software were purchased but only 1 copy of the media was used for install, but with the various serial numbers used. I still have 25 copies of Win95 with 24 disks still sealed in packets, but All of the C.O.A. serial numbers were used. Are they collectible? IDK, None can be LEGALLY installed unless it's SURE that everyone of those PCs are in a landfill. (actually extremely likely!) These are a commercial pack (like OEM). Unused Boxed Retail is collectible, If you have WFW (Windows 3.11) with a retail box, with manual, It does have collector value.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Damned I threw away a couple of sotware still shrink wrapped since I never openned them but used the serial #...

Same as Saturday... I was at a WV show and saw old cans of fuel for sale, small ones for about $100.00. I just sent a larger one to the landfill while cleaning someone's garage...

(kicking my own ass)....