All software vendors, 2018:
So then all the customer's data, every tiny detail of their lives, is uploaded into the giant central computer hub located in another country. And your life gets much better! It only costs you $1000 a day. Any questions?
Me:
Uh. um. What, like, stops bad, uh, bad people, all that power in one place
Vendor (laughing):
We knew you'd ask! So we only allow a tiny insular self-selected, rich, social elite to run the giant central computer.
CEO (nods):
Very wise.
seriously if you want to watch a room go dead still with an embarrassed, pitying silence because there is a very dumb person in it who just doesn't understand Modern Computer
just ask questions about Why Put All The Things In The Cloud, What About Privacy
One does not simply... NOT put all the things in the Cloud
I thought you understood Computer
Q: "this path we're committed to, is it wise?"
A: (pitying look) "It's happening. You can't stop it. Everything is going this way."
A: "I know everyone's doing it, but is it *wise*. Will we regret this later?"
Q: (shuffle papers) "Let's move on."
Disclaimer: My actual CEO was not actually in the room.
But very few things scare me quite as much, bone-deep, as the average IT person's implicit trust in the pure-hearted goodness of Large Corporations.
The bigger the corporation, the more the trust.
It's amazing.
@natecull convenience beats trust, every time. convenience is always a convincing (but often quite false) synonym for "more efficient" which is then translated to "less expensive" to C-level decision maker types.
@aag And it certainly is less expensive.
Running a physical server room, installing racks, and setting up and paying for air conditioning is a *pain*.