Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

What could possibly go wrong with moving all your development to the cloud? At least ask the question.

Programmers are running to cloud-based integrated development environments (IDEs). Once again, consumers run away from bad services, in this case the IT department, and towards better services, in this case cloud providers.

This comes with risks, and I don’t see many people acknowledging those risks.

Recently, I was taking a cloud-based course, a.k.a., online learning or MOOC. I was completing a graded, you-need-to-pass-this-to-get-your-money’s-worth test. My Internet connection failed (thanks Xfinity). I was fortunate in that I eventually recovered and didn’t lose my tuition fee. It was only $49. Programmers, and their employers, are often at risk for much more than $49.

Moving to cloud-based development? Good for you. I hope it all works fine. Still, do some risk management and ask,

What could possibly go wrong?