Google pledges data mobility

As users finally understand the dangers of cloud computing, Google seeks to reassure them with extractable data applications. Pavla Tolonen hopes this will inspire all companies to do the same.

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After the recent surge in antipathy for cloud computing services, Google has announced that they will enable all their resources to be extracted and placed on an alternative data bases – should a customer want this.

While welcomed, the move is not entirely unexpected as any ambitions Google may have for remote data storage would never work with users doubting the flexibility of their services. Cloud computing, which could easily be described as users saving photos, files and software on a remote server, has received increasing criticism for being one-sided in holding user data safe.

What is refreshingly surprising, however, is the attitude with which Google’s new Data Liberation team have approached the issue. They have revealed plans for a one-button extract tool and even incorporated a Monty Python joke while creating the name for the team assigned to convert all Google applications. Finally, Google has restored hope in their liberal, fun-seeking image.

Although this initiative is not originally a Google creation, the company seems to have successfully sparked enough debate about the inaccessibility of user information when a user wishes to leave a site.

The non-profit, inner-industry think tank Data Portability Project, has been struggling to perfect a strategy to tackle data mobility since 2007, but have now been beaten to the solution by Google.

Often data and images are hard to remove, or are completely lost if a user wishes to leave an account. This is why Google has already integrated Gmail and Blogger to the new system, so if a user wishes to leave they can get all their information at the figurative door.

Free, unenclosed data mobility is exactly where we should be headed in this industry, but how accurately this policy can be enacted will prove tricky. Several file format standards for moving files across different networks and operating systems will emerge and we will undoubtedly see a dominant format crush the competition.

Despite Google pioneering the main standard, they may not create the ideal standard for odd files like revision content, where several layers of modifications appear, making files larger to process. We will have to wait for a comprehensive system, but for now, this progress seems very promising.

Image credit: bionicteaching