The Wall Street Journal wonders this week: is it a good idea that so many consumers are starting to rely more and more on cloud computing for their data storage solutions?

Over the past few years, the idea of storing information in cloud technology has gone from a novelty to an expectation. Popular cloud music player Spotify has gone from 1.1 million users in July 2011 to almost 15 million users this year. And Dropbox, a file-storage provider, has made a similar stretch from 1.6 million to 11.5 million over the same period. Approximately 77% of all adults online are now using cloud services in at least some capacity.

Cloud technology is becoming more essential as people search for ways to efficiently view information across a range of devices. No longer are people just checking email on their desktop — they also have accounts for their phone, work computers, and more. AS WSJ says: \”Moving everything to the cloud is the only reasonable way to deal with the growing digital self we’re all managing.\”

Critics, however, have pointed out that, despite the numerous advantages of relying so heavily on cloud solutions, there are some drawbacks. Extensive use of cloud computing solutions, especially without security backing, can open users up to cyber attacks and data snooping.

As Triona Guidry points out, \”There is zero guarantee that your cloud vendor is maintaining better security on its systems than you do on your own.\” Data breaches have hit many companies over the past several years, and we end up putting a lot of faith in third parties to protect us from malware and other various threats when we use cloud.

On the other hand, Frank Gillet of Forrester Research sees a lot of positives for the cloud, such as a full refund. He agrees that there are occasional security issues, but these are comparatively tame comparing to the issues non-cloud users deal with frequently, such as hard-drive failures and email scams. \”Individuals are fundamentally bad at security,\” he notes, and this is nothing new or limited to cloud hosting.

Would you work with a cloud solution company? Let us know in the comments. Read more like this: local.cbeyond.com