Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Sat Mar 29 00:06:39 CDT 2014
Hi Bill: I thought governments were supposed to help. After all we do pay their wages. ;-) Jim ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Benson" <bensonforums at gmail.com> To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" <accessd at databaseadvisors.com> Sent: Friday, March 28, 2014 8:34:23 PM Subject: Re: [AccessD] To the Cloud or Not to the Cloud. that is the Question That is so funny.(NSA). There was an attempt I believe by some group once to get a record of all their own recorded conversations from the NSA using Freedom of Information Act but I don't think they won. Good luck getting government to ever give assistance for any reason than to help you or your business to a jail cell or the auction block. On Mar 28, 2014 11:25 PM, "Jim Lawrence" <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote: > Hi John: > > I think that Cloud early adopters suffered greatly from continuous > Cloud/internet outages....but things have improved dramatically and now > anyone can just get many Gigs of storage, from a dozen companies offering > basic backup even for free. I have taken advantage of this and now all of > my desktop(s) and operational files can easily be accessed from anywhere > there is a internet access point. (But I wonder if the NSA will ever sell > backup services?...it should be free to all American of course as you guys > pay for it in your taxes.) > > Like you I believe that complete dependence on the web or any place for > that matter is unfounded and the more diversified your data and software > holdings are, the better. Initially, there is nothing cheaper or easier > than just getting up and running than using Cloud services. That said, in > the long run it can end up being a lot more expensive if you rely > completely on web services as it is like a tax you must pay every month > forever. Someone may say, that paying $100 a month for a full server is > cheaper, but then there is the additional costs of access time, numbers of > users, gigabytes of data processed and so on, and the cost can quickly > creep up to $350 a month...without a good provider you can be nickel and > dimed to death. Then calculate that out for ten years and it can starts to > look expensive...then add on additional features like monitoring, backups, > upgrades and security...and that of course does not count the real road > block of throughput as performance is rated by ! > how fast data can moved back and forth across the relatively slow > internet network. As soon as real fibre-optic cabling is the default > internet this will not be a problem, but as of yet, there is no match to a > networks performance. > > The big improvement to the whole Cloud experience is type of scaling the > providers are now using...I think all have switched over. As you know RAID > 6 is probably one of the secure methods of managing data with a million to > one chance of loss. The next level up is the use of the RAID ZF or the use > of the ZFS drive formatting. This format is the most secure method of > handling data known. It is said that Linux ZFS, on a properly setup site, > can rate data loss in billions to one. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS) > Maximum size of drive cluster is 256 zebibytes....more data than all the > data storage in the world today. So I think issues of data lost have almost > moved to zero. > > The next issue is how stable is this network. When the Cloud initially > started, a provider's fail-over servers and services were rather limited. > Now the big providers have servers all over the world so the chances of the > system going down is now more of a regional concern. > > In summary, remote regions without excellent internet service are going to > be left behind in this new development and will languish in the background > for years to come. If you are fortunate enough to live close to main > centres, the costs of Cloud service can only come down as competition and > hardware costs continue to drop and the Cloud becomes very cost effective. > > Jim > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "John W Colby" <jwcolby at gmail.com> > To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" < > accessd at databaseadvisors.com> > Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2014 2:08:39 PM > Subject: Re: [AccessD] To the Cloud or Not to the Cloud. that is the > Question > > My biggest concern with cloud computing is reliability. I don't remember > how long ago it was (last > year?) but several of the internet "cloud" providers had outages. > Unrelated, just "stuff" at the > servers. The internet is still (IMO) inherently less reliable than an in > house system. > > That said, the companies involved have a huge incentive to get the issues > fixed. > > Several years ago a client up in CT was having issues just getting > (staying) on the internet. > Internet up / down / up / down / up.... down / up.... It was an issue with > the phone company > routers. it went on for days. > > If the db is in the cloud, then you are twiddling thumbs during the down > cycles. > > It feels like the internet is getting more stable, but it is the nature of > the beast that things > might happen. Last year a group of hackers working for one of the Arab > "terrorist" groups took > several banks offline using DOS attacks. For days at a time the users > couldn't do web banking. > > If the db is in the cloud, then you are twiddling thumbs during the down > cycles. > > John W. Colby > > Reality is what refuses to go away > when you do not believe in it > > On 3/27/2014 4:37 PM, Brad Marks wrote: > > All, > > > > A few days ago, I posted a question regarding a new database that will > > be needed for a new small application (perhaps using Access 2007, MySQL, > > or Microsoft SQL Server). I received a number of replies to my question > > and I appreciate the insights that were shared. > > > > In the mean time, I have also been doing some R&D work with Microsoft > > Azure SQL Database. > > So far, I have been impressed. > > > > Yesterday in less than one hour, I was able accomplish the following - > > Set up a new Microsoft Azure Account > > Set up a new SQL Database > > Then with a small Access 2007 application using ODBC and Pass-through > > Queries I was able to > > Add a new table to the new test database > > Insert rows into the new table > > Retrieve this data. > > > > > > My background is in mainframe databases (Primarily IBM's DB2 and > > Cincom's Supra). I can remember how much work it was to accomplish > > these same simple steps with these databases. Sometimes we would spend > > days, just wrestling with DB2's security. > > > > It is my understanding that other Access users are using Azure with some > > success. It also sounds like the costs for our use of Azure will be > > very small ($5.00 - $10.00 per month). > > > > > > At this point in time, it seems like this is a good option for our > > little project. (We don't have Microsoft SQL Server installed > > "in-house"). > > > > I am curious if others have looked closely at Azure and decided to not > > go down this path. Perhaps there are downsides that I have not yet read > > about. Perhaps I am missing some important considerations. > > > > Thanks, > > Brad > > > > > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com