MicrosoftI and members of my contracts organization have been using OneNote for most of this decade. We manage government contracts and as the U.S. government and its private sector contracting community moved from paper-based to electronically-formatted documents and filing systems--we are required to maintain complete and compliant contracts files for audit--OneNote appeared to be the standard-issue solution. OneNote proliferated through our organizations as part of standard Office installations and we used it. Microsoft's move to cloud computing and its abandonment of the desktop leaves us in a difficult situation. The U.S. Gov't, and particularly Dept. of Defense, contractors are prohibited by the terms of their contracts from storing contract data in the cloud. It's not a choice we are allowed to make, but rather, a directive. Beyond that, cyber security mandates to government contractors have since placed significant and onerous limitations on the storage of "controlled unclassified information" or CUI and "covered defense information "CDI" that make cloud storage (outside our own organizations) completely forbidden. What we face now, is what to do with many years of accumulated data and documentation in OneNote files that we cannot transfer to the cloud--a dead end--and we've institutionalized the use of OneNote, which doesn't have a substitute with reach coextensive with that of the Windows operating systems and Office suites we will use well into the future. Microsoft has not offered users like us--and as another good example, law firms--an acceptable off-ramp or substitute into which we can draw and continue to access our contract documentation. In my opinion this switch to cloud only was extremely short sighted and it will do us injury. What is Microsoft going to do to soften the impact of this decision?
