Working in the cloud and the impact on mobile connectivity

A lot of folks are now happily working away in the cloud and more are joining that group every day.  Working in the cloud fits a lot of mobile workers' lifestyles what with keeping data on the web and accessing it on whatever device they might be using at a given moment.  This method is very effective for many, I know Kevin is quite happy working in the cloud.  I have tried different "cloud approaches" and while they work well I have noticed they can have an impact, not always positive, when I happen to be in the field and using 3G mobile broadband connectivity.

A lot of these programs engage automatic syncing of data from the cloud to the local desktop.  They do this by default as the goal is to insure that mobile workers always have the data at hand that might be needed whether connected to the web or not.  This can be very useful but I have found this can be a negative experience the way I work.  When I am in the field I often grab my mobile PC out of the bag and connect to the web via 3G to do something like check my email quickly or look something up on the web.  I have found that some of these cloud apps detect when a new network connection is made and decide at that moment to perform the auto-sync I mentioned to keep my local data up to date with the web data.  This has hampered my ability to get something done quickly at times, especially if the 3G connection is not that good due to signal strength issues.  I have many times found my throughput to be greatly diminished and then realized that program X was synchronizing a good bit of data. 

I have experienced this with FolderShare, a great syncing tool to keep data in sync on several devices, and I've also seen this on various other tools that do the same thing.  Ordinarily this syncing doesn't interfere with anything as it is happening in the background but like I said, when you are jumping online to do something quickly it doesn't take much to hamper what you are trying to do.  I have even seen reports of users who are seeing connectivity issues, even with WiFi, with Google Calendar Sync which keeps Google Calendar updated with Outlook on the desktop.  I wouldn't be surprised if this particular issue was magnified using a 3G connection as waking the device up and jumping online might get in the way with this automatic syncing.  For the reasons I have mentioned what I always do with these syncing tools is to set them to only manually update if that option is available.  That makes sure that I can jump online quickly when needed and not impact that task whenever possible. Of course that means I need to remember to regularly tell the programs to perform the update, something that I am bad at doing.

The benefits that these cloud apps can bring probably far outweigh the impact on productivity that I've described and most likely won't impact most users much at all.  Workers like me who are constantly jumping on and offline to get stuff done quickly might find that to be too much of an impact however, especially if multiple cloud tools are in use at once.  It's just something to keep in mind if that describes you so you can make the decision on how to handle that if so.  It can also have a negative impact on battery power too if you are syncing a large amount of data like many do with FolderShare so keep that in mind too.

Comments

[John in Norway]

I don't use 'the cloud' but I do find that when I turn on the wifi on my OQO 02 it's almost impossible to get anything done for minutes because of the antivirus software and Windows updating. Like you say, it's very annoying when you just want to go online and do something quickly or synch.

[Jose R. Ortiz]

I've noticed that issue with FolderShare as well, especially when I'm working off of Edge while tethering my phone and not 3G network is available. What I've been doing is shutting down the FolderShare Satellite when I'm working from a slow network and launch it later when I'm connected via Wi-Fi. It's still a nuisance but I find that I have to shut it down less frequently than doing a manual sync.

[Mike Cane]

>>>I don't use 'the cloud' but I do find that when I turn on the wifi on my OQO 02 it's almost impossible to get anything done for minutes because of the antivirus software and Windows updating.

Ouch! I'd been wondering what would happen with, say, an EeePC, CloudBook, or upcoming hp 2133, out and about. I was wondering if Windows Update would kick in. I hate it when I tell the computer Off and it surprises me with, "Oh, time for a Windows Update!" That would *not* be welcome when I'm outside, shutting down after WiFi use -- especially with a low battery!

James: Isn't there anyway to specify time of syncing? Like, say, every night at 1AM or whatever? Since you'd likely be asleep, and the Fuji (or whatever) plugged in, it could be in Standby, wake up, sync, and get it out of the way.

[Dave Zatz]

Many cloud computing folks overlook the inherent security considerations. I've made some personal allowances and turned the blind eye, but I've worked on projects where it's not permissible and even now as an employee of a public traded company, it's not OK to have my data stored or sent via a third party.

[Steve 'Chippy' Paine]

@Dave

The security risks are there, yes, but in general, the biggest security risk is the end user. In-transit risks pale into insignificance when compared to the risks introduced by the average end-user. In general, the more data you can keep out of an end-users PC, the more secure it is. This, however, doesn't fit with a lot of companies sec. policies simply because they don't have the time to asses the multitude of in-cloud options. Its easier and cheaper to say 'no' and remove that risk and apply a hard end-user sec. poilcy rather than spending a lot of time (paying a lot of money) to analyse the in-cloud options.

I did some analysis of my own, personal, usage a few years back while I was still working as a data security consultant and I decided that running my own home server and keeping my data synced across PCs, running my own remote access and doing backups was the biggest risk I had. Since then i've entrusted most of my smaller data packages (docs, email and a lot of passwords) to third parties in the cloud. Fortunately my boss, me, agreed ;-)

Steve.

[James Kendrick]

Mike, you can (and I have) configure Windows Update to go in the middle of the night. The problem is that mobile devices, at least mine, aren't left on at night so the update actually happens when the device is turned back on. This seems to always happen at the worst time.

[Chuck]

I have Windows Update set to notify me when updates are available, but not download or install until I authorize them. This way I don't have to suffer the delay at start-up or the refusal for a quick shut-down.

It is too bad that other programs do not offer a similar option.