Reading with interest the comments by Autodesk this past week referencing the acquisition of HSMWorks as part of their strategy to move users to the cloud. It is appropriate to discuss exactly what this wonder of software utility will have to use to work. Yes, it is true, this thing has to use the internet.
In congress this past week has been the discussion of Huawei telecom equipment from China. Your friendly provider of internet shopping carts for those who want to know all about what you don’t want them to know about. This comes in the same year that brings us the reports of Dell server boards with back doors built-in and military components with the same from China among many other reports. Look, there is a lot of proof of these things out there and if the idea that your internet stuff is secure is the world you live in you better start researching for yourself and see.
Anyway so the Chinese governments partner Hwawei makes stuff for the world’s internet and does whatever they have to in order to get it in place. I had to laugh while reading about this stuff today as about a half a year ago I jokingly said if I were the Chinese I would provide this internet stuff for free. Now I find out they are providing the equipment for free in some cases just to get their foot in the door. China is a very corrupt nation with contempt for the idea of your intellectual property rights and the ties of the military have tentacles all through Chinese finance and industry. This is not a group of people who can be trusted in any way.
http://www.zdnet.com/hack-in-the-box-researcher-reveals-ease-of-huawei-router-access-7000005600/
SO, now that they have a shopping cart in place in your facility just what do you do about it? Well you yank it out and get a different piece of equipment first off. Better yet your internal network for important things has no acess to the internet. But what about the web which neither you or Dassault or Autodesk can or ever will control? Web is safe right? I mean these people from Autodesk and Dassault are capable management and would not tell you a lie just to get into your pockets right?
Now look I am not a millionaire nor a billionaire and I am not the head of a major or even medium size company. I can read however and do a smidgen of research. What I find is indisputable proof of jeopardy for those who adopt any cloud based service without complete indemnity from the cloud company. Like the ones Finance has had to offer. Ironclad and in writing. I have to believe that I am not uniquely suited to find this information out and therefore the only conclusion a rational person can reach is that the cloud as these guys promise it is a fraudulent promise.
Last year there was an event that most of you are not aware of. This little jewel made sweat pop out on the foreheads of every major military contractor and security agency around the world.
So just remember, any company that tries to sell you or force you into the cloud and is not willing to completely cover your risk there does so with malice aforethought. They are interested in only locking you into a solution that will in short order make you a data hostage subject to extortion where pay to play with your own intellectual property will be the new norm. Comments to the contrary about providing stand alone desktop solutions never come with written guarantees of longevity nor is there an available contractural agreement to provide such a thing for any time frame. Not one provides proof of concept nor a real world ROI study to demonstrate how this will be of true benefit to customers that I have seen. It is purely about your money in their pockets and more of that over time and in ways you can’t stop except by leaving.
It is a profoundly cavalier attitude towards your future these cloud companies like Dassault and Autodesk bring to the table. Let me rephrase that. It is a contemptible one where they can’t prove security nor cost justifications for their business model. They do however have endless supplies of Koolaid at the negotiating table though so at least you won’t be thirsty while discussing things with them.
On second thought I can reference a recent real world study although an inadvertant one. COFES 2012 internet meltdown. Providing proof of concept we have here http://www.deelip.com/?p=7485#comments
Machined Audio Horn Lens 