---
title: Whose Cloud Is It Anyway? Goodbye Ed
date: 2008-08-01T11:21:39Z
modified: 2008-08-01T11:21:39Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/whose-cloud-is-it-anyway-goodbye-ed/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 1546
categories:
  - Uncategorized
timestamp: 2008-08-01T11:21:39Z
tags:
  - Uncategorized
---

[![cloud](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/33/59308568_ea247dffbe.jpg?v=1149414159)

](http://www.flickr.com/photos/barto/59308568/ "rain cloud in the pacific")

I am not a fan of [FUD](http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2008/07/15/cloudcamp-london-avoiding-monsters/), but I do like begrudging pragmatism, which is why I enjoyed this [Fatal Exception piece](http://weblog.infoworld.com/fatalexception/archives/2008/07/cloud_computing.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2008-07-31) from Neil McAllister.

I reported recently on the _physical_ challenges of [getting data back from a cloud once you’d stored it there](http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2008/07/21/cloudcamp-london-the-inauguration/), but here Neil, pointing to a [review of cloud computing services](http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/07/21/30TC-cloud-reviews_1.html), focuses on the issue of supplier agreements, SLAs, or their lack in cloud computing. Its a really important point.

> In a cloud computing environment, the vendor holds the strings. If at any time the vendor decides that a customer is in violation of the terms of its service, that customer’s application can go dark now, immediately, and completely unilaterally — SLA be damned.

Paul Downey likes to say [The Web is Agreement](http://blog.whatfettle.com/2007/10/31/the_web_is_agreement/), but perhaps more importantly for businesses The Web Is Contract.

Perhaps at the next CloudCamp – rumored to be in NY (any word, [Geir](http://www.10gen.com/blog/2008/7/10gen-platform-is-open-source)?) we can run a solid discussion about the contyctual and legal aspects of what [Dion Hinchliffe](http://hinchcliffeandcompany.com/) has defined as [Cloudsourcing](http://www.socialcomputingmagazine.com/viewlisting.cfm?id=79). Perhaps we could even create some [standard](http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2008/06/24/cloud_standards/) templates for agreements.

One guy I am absolutely sure would have been all over these supplier agreements, fighting the users’ corner as ever is [Ed Foster of gripelog](http://www.gripe2ed.com/) fame. He passed away last weekend, and will be sorely missed. Ed really was an advocate for the user.

photo credit, [barto](http://www.flickr.com/photos/barto/), under CreativeCommons Attribution 2.0 license.