Fedora's Cloud Future (and, self (re-)introduction)

[les]

On Wed, 2012-09-19 at 15:26 -0400, Matthew Miller wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 09:04:52PM +0200, Lennart Poettering wrote:
> > In summary: I believe that containers are a big part of being awesome in
> > the cloud. And right now running Fedora inside a container is not that
> > great an experience. It kinda works, but it's very very rough around the
> > edges.
> 
> Thanks Lennart. I agree, this is an important aspect.
> 
> > Yes, I know I should have subscribed to the ML and posted that there,
> > but I am soooo lazy to do that for one mail only... I apologize.
> 
> Not a problem -- this list is good too, because ultimately it's going to
> affect everyone. I'm happy to engage community members, developers, and
> users not just in my "home space" but in theirs as well. :)
> 
> -- 
> Matthew Miller  _☁_  Fedora Cloud Architect  _☁_  <mattdm at fedoraproject.org>

I am a cloud doubter.  Cloud for business is one thing, IF and only if
the cloud is maintained by that business.  Otherwise a third party is
free to move the data wherever they want, meaning physical access, legal
control, license review and regulation are no longer in control.  Worse,
it leads to volume based pricing, which can then be easily manipulated
without the consumers knowledge, ability to recognize it, or to control
it.  Moreover it will make censure-ship easier, and in general bad for
the common user.  

	There is a belief that encryption is a "lock box".  I know that quite a
few people disagree, but the reality is that encryption is only a
gelatin capsule, which dissolves at an exponential rate (system
capabilities double about every 18 months, and moreover botnets increase
even that by another exponential power.) One man, one computer resolved
most of the google passwords in 6 days.  A PC and by his own admission,
not a new one.

There is no safety, no protection for data, for interaction, think
movement network analysis, and contact mesh analysis. Both of these are
tools for big data, meaning government and large corporation mass
manipulation tools.

Uprisings such as the crowds in Egypt or the so called Arab spring
become more crippled, while at the same time become more tempting to
newcomers to the forays.  

The cloud does offer some benefits, but primarily to providers, not
consumers.

As you work on this, think not only of the power for good, but also the
power that someone with bad intentions will have at their disposal.

A corruption or attack on a cloud server has much greater potential for
disruption than on a fully autocratic distributed network.  Or are you
in agreement with the old IBM sentiment that the world only needs one
computer? (joking;-)

Thanks,
Les H