Cloud computing sounds like something light and fluffy. In reality it is a massive industrial network of servers, cables, and cooling systems humming away in warehouses the size of football fields. We have gotten used to storing our lives up there in the skies, but the more we rely on it the more important it becomes to understand the risks hidden behind the silver lining. GDPR and where your data lives GDPR and where your data lives Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) not all storage locations are created equal. Article 44 and the following articles set the rules for data transfers to countries outside the European Union. In short: if your data leaves the EU it must be given the same level of protection it would get inside the EU. That sounds nice in theory but in practice it often means complex contracts, contractual clauses, and a lot of paperwork to keep the lawyers happy. The irony? Many users have no idea where their data physically sits. It might be in Frankfurt today and in Singapore tomorrow. The cloud does not care about borders but the GDPR does. Everyone uses the cloud even if they think they do not Everyone uses the cloud even if they think they do not Ask the average smartphone user if they use cloud storage and they may shrug. Then you mention iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, or even WhatsApp backups. Suddenly they realize their entire photo library is sitting on someone else’s server. Most people are cloud customers by accident. And for good reason: the big providers make it effortless. Files sync in the background. Backups happen automatically. You never think about hard drives or RAID configurations. Security you cannot match at home Security you cannot match at home There is also a hard truth: the security measures at hyperscale cloud providers are far beyond what most individuals or even small companies can implement. Biometric access controls. 24 hours security staff. Redundant power and network systems. Sophisticated intrusion detection. Compare that to a dusty NAS box in your home office that is protected by a single password you have been reusing since 2012. Even small companies running their own servers struggle to match this level of protection. Patching software, replacing failing hardware, monitoring for attacks. It is a full time job. Scalability, security, and reliance Scalability, security, and reliance The cloud’s biggest selling point is scalability. Need to handle ten times more users tomorrow? Just pay more and watch your capacity expand instantly. Try doing that with your own hardware and you will be waiting weeks for delivery, setup, and configuration. But scalability comes with reliance. If your provider has an outage you wait. If they raise prices you pay. If they change terms of service you adapt. You are renting a service not owning the infrastructure. The cost of doing it yourself The cost of doing it yourself Self hosting sounds empowering until you run the numbers. Energy in the EU is expensive. Running a server 24 hours a day is not free. Cooling it in summer adds to the bill. Data centers abroad may run on cheaper electricity, often from sources with a lower environmental conscience. That is part of why large providers can beat your cost per gigabyte by a wide margin. Espionage and political surprises Espionage and political surprises There is also the small matter of corporate espionage. If your cloud provider is in a different jurisdiction you may be subject to laws you have never heard of. Intelligence agencies and law enforcement in other countries might have access rights you would never allow at home. And then there is the risk of sudden regulation. Imagine a political dispute that leads to your provider losing the legal right to store EU data. Your access could vanish overnight and your business along with it. Privacy even at home it is not absolute Privacy even at home it is not absolute Some people believe that hosting data locally makes it completely private. It does not. If your NAS is connected to the internet it is exposed. If your office is burglarized the drives are gone. Even if you keep it entirely offline someone else might have copies from your email provider, from backups, or from past uploads. Privacy is a spectrum not an absolute state. The devil you know The devil you know Cloud computing is the devil in the skies: it can be your most valuable partner or your most dangerous weakness. The same technology that gives you infinite storage and processing power can also take it away without warning. The trick is not to avoid the cloud. It is to know exactly which devil you are dancing with, where your data sleeps at night, and what could happen if the music stops.
