Traditionally, yin and yang can be thought of as being the interconnection of contrary forces within the natural world. Dualities such as life and death, light and dark or hot and cold can be seen through this conceptual lens which demands balance in all things. The cloud is, of course, no exception.
Look, I'm not pretending to be an expert in ancient Chinese philosophy here; heck, my hands-on knowledge of yin and yang extends no further than having both a large tiger and a dragon (not Piers Linney I hasten to add) tattooed upon my chest to represent opposing martial arts fighting styles, and hence, be symbolic of the balance in all things.
And there's the thing. Like most people I just used the word 'opposing' within the context of describing yin and yang , but surely that's missing the point?
This is where cloud computing comes in. Those who talk of the opposing forces that are at work within cloud will mention several different concepts: cost savings and security, ease of use and privacy, migration and compliance.
At first glance these all indeed, seem representative of a cloudy yin and yang in actionl, sitting unhappily side by side in a marriage of business and technical inconvenience. But is this really the case? Yin and yang, as I understand the philosophical principle at least, are anything but oppositional; they are complementary forces.
Actually, I would go further than that and say that they are essentially complementary forces without which the world could not exist. Both the yin and the yang of everything need to be in balance with each other, in order to form the kind of dynamic system wherein the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Indeed, look deeper and (if you subscribe to the doctrines of Taoist metaphysics) the whole good/bad distinction is perceptual. Take shadow, which is dark yet cannot exist without light; yin and yang complementing each other to form a whole that could not exist without one or other. And so it is with the cloud, a dynamic and evolving computing microcosm that mirrors the world from this whole-life balance perspective.
The One True Path Survey after survey suggests that The Powers That Be are wary of the cloud because they perceive that in order to gain bottom line cost savings then security will be compromised. Talk to some architects of the cloud at an enterprise implementation level and they will speak of the need to sacrifice a certain amount of privacy at the altar of ease of use as if this is The One True Path.
They speak as if the contrary forces within the cloud are banging up against each other at such a rate that eventually fusion will happen; not in a good way but rather in a high-energy collision from which some sort of H-bomb will inevitably go off. However, just as nuclear fusion is misunderstood so is the act of cloud component fusion. After all, fusion itself is the result of an interplay of two opposing forces: a nuclear force combining protons and neutrons, and a Coulomb force repelling them. Yet, somehow, they stick together. In scientific terms this is the Strong Nuclear Force. In philosophical terms it is yin and yang. In cloud terms it is a risk and reward balance scenario, just as it has ever been in any area of business computing.
Let's not fool ourselves here; whenever we deal with data then we deal with risk. The cloud is no different in that regard to network attached storage, no different to an outsourced data centre strategy. The level of risk will vary, as will the level of reward, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing; just a thing that needs to be addressed and resolved within the context of each particular business model. Once your business has asked the question 'what business benefits will this achieve and what are the acceptable levels of risk' then balance within the cloud can begin.
Note that I said begin, rather than concluded or assured. Yin and yang is a dynamic process, in the cloud as in the natural world, and as such your journey towards cloud nirvana will likely be a never-ending one. The risk and reward balancing act is by necessity a complex one, and one that will need constant tweaking to keep on top of. However, there are no guarantees when it comes to data security other than at some point someone will try to compromise it.
Rather than concentrate on the inevitable clashes between individual components within the cloud, security and privacy demands for example, take a very deep breath and pull your focus out to see the broader landscape within which your data is working.
Confucius Winder, he say, "consider the cloud as a collaborative (not combative) part of the enterprise, from a strategic security perspective, and it becomes a lot easier to visualise the balance that is being achieved."
