I am watching the Fusion 360 videos about how wonderful the cloud is, and it turns my stomach.... just because it's so simplistic. The issue isn't whether the cloud is good, it's the issue of conflating the cloud service I have to choose ( Autodesk ) with the design system I'm using.
I don't trust Autodesk yet. I don't trust any cloud provider. I have a local NAS with RAID-6. I have local hard drives ( USB3 ) that sync every day. I have currently chosen Google Drive as my cloud sharing provider... and I have switched back and forth over time. Autodesk 360's terms of service says explicitly: "you are encouraged to create your own backups", and "THE SERVICE OFFERING IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” AUTODESK PARTIES MAKE NO, AND HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL, REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND"
Thanks for being clear.... I'll save my files locally every day, or if you make it too hard, I'll leave your software.
The issue with this smarmy message that the cloud is good is that it doesn't talk to my problem. my problem is being FORCED to use THE AUTODESK CLOUD when, Autodesk, I don't know you very well. I just read your terms of service, and although your "your content is your content" pledge is pretty good, I also know terms can change, and I also see a giant "AS-IS" term. I trust the cloud, I do not YET trust AUTODESK.
No mention is made of cloud services that shut down, simply because they don't make enough money, or prices get jacked up. Right now, in 2018, I have to deal with the hassle of getting my photos of Flickr, because it's transferring to another company and I don't trust them. I used to use a bookmarks cloud service, "FoxMarks", and it shut down. Tomorrow, I may see that AutoDesk has shut it's cloud service --- after all, I went to learn 123Design, spent a bunch of days getting proficient, and they decided it was in their best interest to strand me.
And in the current world.... cloud data gets stolen. Autodesk makes some promises, but let's face it, the world is a pretty ugly cyberwarfare place. Autodesk never claimed google level of security.
Have I had hard drives fail? Sure! Do I have a tremendous hassle trying to manage the forest of data around my house? Sure! But compared to losing designs because some company decided to change it's policy.... not going to happen.
Companies are sociopaths, at best, they work for the profit of their shareholders, that's all fine, and anyone who trusts a single company for something as precious as their personal creation is a fool. One works hard to use open file formats with multiple tools supporting that format. "Everyone" knows this, which is why Javascript wins over Flash, and a million other cases of "better" proprietary technology being dwarfed by tools that are based around an open data standard.