A very direct example is of course Internet viruses, which are purposefully designed to circumvent the gatekeeper. However, cloud collaboration introduced a more subtle mechanism where files we have locally are changed over a distance by someone else.

 

Another issue arises from the fact that collaborators are not always in the same cloud environment, so a particular one has to be chosen for given (sub) task. Hence, there are several places already where you keep files. Due to the increased digitalization the rate of change of files increased multi-fold. Moreover, computers are no longer digital filing systems, but have the capacity of a full office in a small portable box.

 

Lost data control

 

To a great extent we have lost the data control which we once had. However, it does not make sense not to want control over that which is valuable to us: the fruits of our labor.

 

So, the conservative way to approach this problem is to double-down on centralization. The idea is that local filing cabinets are now cumbersome, and that work should simply be concentrated in the cloud. For instance, Google sells Chromebooks which run a light operating system and the idea is that the end user is productive through the suite of cloud services and applications offered by Google through the Chrome browser.

 

In a race to attract more clout vs the competitor, more and more services are centralized and integrated within a cloud vendor’s infrastructure. The result is cloud environments which are highly sophisticated but a total straitjacket: “We designed our platform for you to work in this prescribed way and that’s how it is.”

 

Human activity and productivity is not black & white, hence data ends up in other places where it hides in the shadows. Secondly, there are so often stakeholders involved which are not on the same platform. This results in even more data mess where links to other clouds are sent by email and have to be shoehorned back into your own environment (if done at all). Thirdly, not all the tools necessary in a user’s field of expertise are available in the cloud. Often, the most valuable data is actually created outside of the cloud platform because of its specificity.

 

So, is increased centralization truly the answer, or is it kicking the can down the unimaginative centralization road?