Cloud Computing: I trust the internet like I trust my dentist

Cloud computing is all the rage.  Walt Mossberg offers a pretty good overview of the concept in his WSJ video log from last week.

So is cloud computing for all of us?

I can't say I'm exactly comfortable with the concept for a key reason: I don't trust my internet service provider to always be there for me.

It reminds me of why I stress out so much when I go to the dentist--it's because I've had bad experiences in the past that have conditioned me to distrust our fine dental professionals (my current dentist Dr. Yim is the exception)

We've all been in that place where we've needed online access, but it wasn't available.  Maybe our wireless card was on the fritz. Maybe the modem wasn't working. Maybe the phone company made an error at a switching station.  Maybe. But you needed access online....and it wasn't there.  You got burned. Because access to the internet was limited.

Burn me once...shame on you. Burn me twice....shame on me.

Cloud computing seems like a huge leap of faith that we will all have easy access to the internet. Yes, availability and speed of the internet increases by leaps and bounds everyday. However, the tether that connects us all is a thin wire.  From a risk management standpoint, I just am not comfortable operating "from the cloud" all the time.

There is security in operating directly from my computer. My data is secure on my laptop (unless someone steals it).  Do we really trust that bad-doers aren't out there trying to hack into our stuff on the cloud?  I'm not certain my confidence level is there yet.

There is also security in knowing I have direct access to my stuff, regardless of my internet connection.  My mind always goes to those points in time where I needed to depend on technology to come through for me...and it failed.

For me...for now...the cloud seems awful risky.  I'm certain many enterprise risk management folks are also going through this exercise.  Becoming too dependent on third party sources to get work done makes one too susceptible to hackers, terrorist attacks, and a lack of guaranteed access to the world wide web.

Cloud computing is all the rage, but we're just one major incident from exposing it's weakness-it needs the internet.

Am I paranoid?