I think we need to break this cloud data question down to a need, requirements, and solution. This discussion has been going on for years now with no solution. So let's put together a solution.
There's an obvious need for ward councils to share data - much of it confidential - with each other. This includes information on visits to new members, phone numbers, names, family needs, etc. If no file/data transfer solution is provided, then the information will be in the form of TXT's, emails, dropbox/box/GDrive/SkyDrive/etc, and stored on various internet servers (in the cloud). The stake presidents will want to help the short-term ministering to be done efficiently and will give permission to use these services (we learned from Oliver Cowdry and Joseph Smith that if you ask enough times you'll eventually get the answer you want). However, it's clear to anyone who is familiar with these services that the security model isn't appropriate for the data our wards are storing there and as a church it's possible to result in a lost 114 GB at some point in the future (or better stated, 114 GB published somewhere to make the church look bad).
What about forming a project to look into providing a solution for this? If an official solution is given, we'd increase security of the data. Mormon's (and any enterprise user) are better at following "thou shalt do this" commandments than the "thou shalt not do that" commandments. We can tell them not to store files in google drive but until it's cannon or in the temple recommend interview, they will upload files to dropbox and click on funnycats.exe in every email they receive.
Let's give them a place to store files that has a better security model and I think most stake presidents would then have an easy way to say "stop using dropbox".
Here's my first shot at a solution:
Problem Definition/Requirements:
> Ward Councils and Stake Councils need to share data
> Need to plan for sharing information between ward councils and missionaries
> I'd esimate the data needs are low 2GB to 5GB per ward and stake
> Data includes, .mp3, mp4, .mov, .wmv, .pdf, .txt, .doc, .xls, .ppt, open doc formats, iWork formats, and more
> users must be able to collaborate (one user at a time able to edit the doc) - nice to have multiple editors at the same time
> Data must be encrypted in transit
> Prefer encryption at rest
> Would be great to know who viewed/edited/printed/shared the data
> When data/docs are deleted, it should remove all copies of the doc everywhere
> Outdated files should be purged
> Would be great to give access based on LDSAccess UserID
Guidance:
> Handbook 1:13.8 and 1:13.9
> Handbook 2, 21.1.15
> HB2, 21.1.122
> training slides from the Presiding Bishopric in 2011. See especially Slide 14, (
http://broadcast2.lds.org/eLearning/ics ... layer.html)
Related Forum Posts:
>
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=5010&p=88173&hilit=dropbox#p88173> ... nevermind - just search for "dropbox" and there's a slew of requests for this feature and some good ideas for solving the problem
Solution Options (in my preferred order, best to worst):
1. Church builds a private cloud storage solution (high cost, highest security, great integration with LDSAccess possible)
2. Church makes an enterprise agreement with a provider and installs that providers solution on ward computers with instructions for ward councils to use that provider (good standard, higher security, high cost)
3. Tech Specialists on this forum find a good cloud storage solution, ensures compliance with all licensing, and publishes guidelines on secure ways to use that service ... at least give guidance for using one of the solutions (or maybe publish guidance for how to use the most common ones like box, skydrive, etc.)
4. Use a server-less approach such as BitTorrent Sync to keep data off of "cloud" servers. (BTSync on ward computers storing data on USB stick with passphrase given out to ward council ... would have to change the passphrase as people are released from callings)
5. continue to use email/txt as the primary collaboration platform (we all know that nothing is ever deleted from email)
6. let Wards/stakes choose any cloud provider and use it with permission from stake presidents (no standard, poor implementation, etc)
7. others?
Choices:
After 5 minutes on this, the only options I can think of that meet all the requirements specified above would be the church building a private cloud and maybe an enterprise agreement. If funding isn't made available for those options (I'd estimate several hundred thousand $US for both options plus annual costs), then the next best choices would be finding a good cloud service and doing the research/documentation or finding a way to do a peer-to-peer file share that every ward council member could set up and use.
I really dislike the idea of continuing to use email and the cloud storage provider of the day. But I know that every ward in my building has at least a shared dropbox account and some have combinations of several cloud storage solutions. I'll bet if we looked we could find many wards where ward missionaries use dropbox, Relief Society use google drive and facebook, EQ using skydrive, HP use paper with emailed .xls home teaching lists, Primary sending email, and the bishop using all of the above.
Anyone else up for adding to the list of requirements/features and solutions?
Since I can't authorize a project to spend this kind of cash on solution #1 or #2, I'm going to investigate #3 and #4 to see if they are viable for my ward.
