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Don't Be a Server Hugger! (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the old-stewball-was-the-most-loyal-server-horse-we-ever-done-had dept.

Curtis Peterson says admins who hang onto their servers instead of moving into the cloud are 'Server Huggers,' a term he makes sound like 'Horse Huggers,' a phrase that once might have been used to describe hackney drivers who didn't want to give up their horse-pulled carriages in favor of gasoline-powered automobiles. Curtis is VP of Operations for RingCentral, a cloud-based VOIP company, so he's obviously made the jump to the cloud himself. And he has reassuring words for sysadmins who are afraid the move to cloud-based computing is going to throw them out of work. He says there are plenty of new cloud computing opportunities springing up for those who have enough initiative and savvy to grab onto them, by which he obviously means you, right?

9 of 409 comments (clear)

  1. Cloud needs server huggers by chiefcrash · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Isn't the "cloud" just a bunch of servers? Should nobody be hugging THOSE servers either?

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    1. Re:Cloud needs server huggers by afidel · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I run two diesel generators, they're backups for when the local utility stuffs up their responsibility and fails to provide power, it's exactly the same reason I'm not going to outsource my server farm to someone else.

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  2. Leasing is always more expensive than buying by davecb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's cheap in the short run, especially if you can't afford the hardware. That's why people used to lease time on IBM mainframes in computer centres. Now people lease time on x86s in computer centres, not realizing that buying enough for your base load is affordable, as well as cheaper in the long run.

    The leasing (cloud) people just love people who don't know about costs.

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  3. Re:Excersise for the reader: by mwvdlee · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just replace "in the cloud" with "let somebody else control your valuable data".
    "Cloud" is great for some things, not so good for others. Just like every other technology ever invented.
    Anybody who doesn't understand this is either a complete retard or a filthy, lying marketeer. Which one are you, mr. Peterson?

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  4. Well played... by argStyopa · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Posting someone's stupid slashvertisement for "moving into the cloud" THREE stories away from "Adobe's Cloud Services Down...again" (http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/05/15/1429204/adobe-creative-cloud-services-offline-again)

    Nicely done!

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  5. Re:Wrong concern by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Not to mention when Disney discovers someone on that server pirated "Steamboat Willie," the government grabs all the servers. Good luck ever seeing your data again.

    (AFAIK, this hasn't happened yet, but Disney loves their liars..er, sorry, lawyers.)

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  6. Re:Wrong concern by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And my reading of many cloud services break many privacy laws. The service provider can see/use the data too. Oops, SOX compliance out the window. Save one critical email to the cloud, and you are breaking the law. Customer data in the cloud? Privacy laws broken. Student or medical info in the cloud? More laws broken. Where are the SOX compliance statements from the cloud?

    I've seen none that promise legal indemnity for any data stored on their cloud.

    Until they offer that, I'll hug my server, rather than get fined or sent to prison (yeah, nobody goes to prison for something like that, but it's theoretically possible) .

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  7. Re:Wrong concern by jcoy42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I worked around the PHB doing something like this by telling him we'd written our own cloud software and were using it because it was more secure than what is currently available.

    He doesn't talk to cloud guys, because we've already got a cloud provider (AFAHKT).

    Yes, things like this really work in real life.

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  8. Re: Wrong concern by sphealey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    - - - - - You aren't outsourcing risk. Proper configuration, application security and the like are still YOUR responsibility. - - - - -

    And of course you have to either provide backup yourself or routinely hard-verify the cloud provider's backup scheme. And you'd better have a backup-backup offsite recovery contract for when the cloud provider announces it can't really recover (e.g. Hurricane Sandy). And a super-backup plan in case the cloud provider disappears with no forwarding address, or has all its servers confiscated by DHS.

    So.... tell me what the big advantages of "cloud" are again?

    sPh