Cloud to Cloud

Episode 18: Bored with the Board

Fred entered a space already filled with more men in suits than he was accustomed to. He straightened the gig line and collar on his button-down shirt. He was grateful he had not rolled and wrinkled the sleeves earlier in the day, though not so grateful he had failed to wear at least a sports jacket. It was awkward enough he had not checked to see if there were visible sweat stains on his shirt.

At the far end of the large oval table, the head of ITower Cloud Services' Big Data branch sat with hands folded in front of him. The man's perfectly coiffed head of grey hair and tailored black suit were enough to make Fred nervous even without the rest of the suits in the room.

In the military, a rank on a sleeve higher than his own had been enough to make Fred cringe. It didn't take so much as a word from someone in power to make Fred sweat bullets.

Then the high ranking corporate officer spoke.

"Fred. I'm glad to see you're on the mend and ready to get back to work here for ITower. We are well aware the world of communications has gone through some serious changes since you had your leave of absence. It is our sincere hope you are not too overwhelmed by these shifts." The tone in the man's voice was almost apologetic.

Fred would not allow himself to be lulled into a relaxed state. He knew better than to fall for such basic corporate mind games. Fred simply sought an empty seat as close to the door as possible.

"Please, we also ask that you be sincere about your opinion of the current wired systems. We are trying hard to maintain some semblance of normalcy at least within the confines of ITower offices."

This time, Fred was certain the man meant to be apologetic, if not ashamed, at the disastrous state of communications systems. Systems that had been the highest and most reliable technology for over forty years.

"I think ITower is honestly doing the best they can." Fred lowered himself into an empty chair between a pair of suited businessmen and took stock of their expressions. "I have worked for this company for more than half my life. I wanted to work in Big Data and Cloud Services since I was a boy messing around on a home device." Fred's brief but deep speech seemed to suffice for the moment to relax the suits in their high-backed office thrones. "I want to help ITower and the people we serve."

"That is wonderful to hear, Fred. We trust you are fully recovered?" This from his direct boss once again. "This is a stressful time and we are in dire need of your expertise, but we also want to keep an asset such as yourself in good health."

Fred smirked at the earnest concern on the man's face. The truth was out--the only real concern here was the health of the company, but by proxy, Fred was getting star treatment. There was a small voice inside Fred's mind telling him there might be some incredible benefits to this new position if he played his cards right.

The man at the head of the table cleared his throat and began his explanation of the information at his disposal at the moment. "The Cloud Services technicians who have been working closely with the crashed systems believe this is a terrorist problem. The issues with the organization calling themselves Wave7 and their apparent bone to pick with GlobeNet may well have expanded into Cloud Services."

Fred folded his arms as he listened with a furrowed brow. The concern of connectivity was not the only issue at stake here. He knew this from the moment the Data Cloud was taken from the easy grasp of public and private control.

The boss continued. With no wireless tablets available, every eye in the boardroom was on the man. It was obvious by the way he worked to avert his eyes he was greatly unaccustomed to having anyone actually look at him while he spoke. "Our fear here at Cloud Services division of ITower is we could have a sort of global amnesia if this Wave7 gang of terrorists is able to compromise the integrity of the Data Cloud. That could hurt us."

Fred held back a sudden urge to speak up for the real issue. The fall of a corporate empire aside, a form of global amnesia was not a matter to take with a light heart. And it was completely plausible.

For the last fifty years, all information had been shifted to digital. In that time, all formatted material had also been moved from even the most advanced solid state storage devices to the Data Cloud. It was an entire generation. The retro uploads would be more devastating if lost. It started with video and image files from the middle to late nineteen hundreds. All information was converted and uploaded. Sure there were some VHS tapes and CD or DVD discs in storage somewhere--the nostalgic or hyper-cautious certainly kept something. The further issue was access to devices required to read these formats of information storage.

During Fred's waxing consideration of these issues, the boss cut from the presentation. "We are talking about every piece of data in the world. Everything is stored in the Data Cloud. When was the last time anybody printed anything?"

Fred mused about empty library shelves, and how the purpose of a librarian had become more research assistant, data communications trainer, or archivist continually uploading information of the past on to storage system of the future.

Fred leaned forward. Leveling with his supervisor he felt the weight of this mission upon him. "You have more than adequately captured my attention. What do you need me to do?"

The offer seemed to enliven the room.

His immediate superior spoke first. "We need to find out if they, Wave7, hacked ITower data or if their sole concern was to knock out communications branches through GlobeNet. We need to know how Wave7 works--their systems, where they're striking. We need to know what ITower Cloud branch needs to lock down to maintain security."

Fred's mind reeled from this insurmountable task, but something else bubbled in his brain as his superior spoke. "Half of what you're asking is networking and access security. I feed data clouds, others specialize in protecting it. I'll need assistance, possibly a team."

"Of course." The way his superior spoke the words gave Fred the sense it would be no trouble at all to ask for the moon or sun to power the mad system he might build.

Fred continued. "I happen to know a guy. Ex-military, so you can be assured he'll follow orders. A hacker and communications man on the field. More recently a contractor for GlobeNet branch in Silicon Valley. He's a bit of a hot shot. A challenge this large wouldn't frighten him in the least."

It wasn't the moon, but it was nepotism. Fred was encouraged by the softening of the boss's features. "Perfect. You get whatever or whoever you need. Promise me progress, and fast. Get on it."