Once The ongoing enthusiasm for Cloud computing and platform as a service storage based solutions, continues to increase. For years, IT professionals repeated their mantra that “storage is cheap [so let’s] save it all!” From IT’s perspective, data is superfluous when their strategy is to save everything. Simply put though, cloud computing has become pervasive because it provides easy flexibility and scalability. It offers cost-effective solutions and a number of other indisputable short-term gains. These include:

• increases efficiency
• scales up easily
• cuts out high cost of hardware
• automates back-up and disaster recovery plans
• facilitates employee collaboration on documents
• provides cost-effective pay-as-you-go subscription-based models

Undoubtedly, these are significant and valuable benefits. But there are challenges and costs in creating sensible digital archiving plans. Cloud computing may seem like the only answer, but it may not be the best answer. Benign neglect and automated uploads or backups may cause more widespread, senseless anxiety. Ostensibly, it may encourage digital hoarding. It may, in fact, be time to step away from the pack and question the wisdom of transferring your assets to the cloud.

Cloud Computing Usage, Storage and Energy Consumption

Data use and storage require electricity that comes primarily from burning fossil fuels. While coal- and oil-based electricity powers computers, it also enables data transmissions across and between networks. And it  supplies energy to store and process an always-growing mountain of data. Though the server farms that power cloud computing are growing, their need for electricity for power is increasing and unceasing. According to McKinsey & Company, data centers will produce more carbon emissions than the entire airline industry by 2020.

Given what we know about digital archivy, the idea that no one (neither stakeholders nor IT) is making appraisal decisions prior to migrating to the cloud is shocking. Without understanding how record creators and end-users interact and relate through their records, it’s difficult to design an efficient and effective system. Lack of awareness of your institution’s organization and departmental needs, as well as pie in the sky thinking and indifference, may lead to vendor lock-in. Uploaded files are out of your custody. You’ve lost control. And you may be paying for storage for items that are rot (redundant, outdated, and trivial).

Benefits of Cloud Computing

The benefits offered by cloud computing exacerbate three significant problems. First, the signal-to-noise ratio in cloud storage will decrease significantly as more and more low-value data accumulates. Intellectual property must be actively managed and controlled. These include documents, artwork, reports, calendars, marketing materials, photographs, and audiovisual recordings. We are creating a very large haystack around a much smaller number of needles.

Second, inefficient application search features will bog down due to large data sets. Performance issues in cloud computing often are due to application design and the enabling technology, not the cloud infrastructure. Unfortunately, institutions often move files to the cloud without first evaluating system design. Databases, middleware, and other technologies will fail without an understanding of content and context. Governance is an important component because controlled vocabularies evolve over time.  Data is less accurate and effective due to the growing size of the rotted data set in the cloud-computing environment.

And third, long-term data retention and issues such as format compatibility and version control will continue to be pain points for management systems. Version control is a tool to ensure that final approved versions are archived. Interoperability and backwards compatibility of file formats often are necessary for institutions, and cloud computing can provide those services online. This will ensure that archived files that can be located and downloaded as needed. However, verification of authenticity of the file becomes complicated in the cloud.

Conclusion

Critical IT infrastructure will often migrate into the cloud. There are tradeoffs, but without physical custody and with changeable metadata, there is a loss of control. Enterprise computing integrates a number of moving parts. Institutions are learning to test and fix as they go. Vendor lock-in is a big risk as assets are migrated into the infrastructure.  If they do not control their data, they will not control the information architecture.

Digital archivy provides practical, cost-effective solutions. If a cloud-computing storage strategy seems too easy and attractive, it may be time to conduct a digital survey and inventory your assets. With forethought and a sound strategy, we can evaluate options and select a cheaper, more effective and secure long-term plan for preserving information and digital assets.