ECM in the Cloud? Not as Scary as You Think

I distinctly recall the moment a few years ago when, as a bumbling new dad trying to calm down a very loud screaming baby boy in the foyer of a theatre, I was confronted by a random stranger.  This lady’s proposal/demand was that she hold the baby while I could go and locate his mother.  Are you kidding me? I don’t remember my exact response, but I am glad my son was too young to understand.

That’s what came to mind when I started thinking about how someone might feel putting their content in the cloud.  The idea of putting the thing that you care most about into the hands of strangers, in an un-known environment might feel like this.If you are thinking about it, there are three issues which must be addressed before you put your information in the hands of a cloud based ECM solution.  Trust, Comfort and Control. Let’s start with:

Trust
I started thinking about a different time when strangers took my baby, and I didn’t mind one bit.  The night my son was born, and we were all exhausted (It was so tiring watching my wife give birth), a nurse I had never met before came in and asked “would you like to keep your son with you tonight, or would you like us to take him to the nursery?”.  “Take him to the nursery!” was our reply in unison…we wanted to get the last good night’s sleep we were going to get!  He was out of our sight most of the night, and my wife and I had a great night’s sleep.

So what was the difference? Why did we have total peace of mind in this case? In the hospital, we were surrounded by people who were more qualified to look after our baby that we were, cared about him (almost) just as much as us and we were in a totally secure environment.

continue reading »