Cloud Computing Confidence
There is a certain expected level of confidence one should be able to have when it comes to cloud computing. While it's been touted as the best solution to housing data outside of one's devices, cloud computing may need a bit more time in the testing field to prove its reliability. Look at a few recent cases where cloud computing hasn't quite lived up to its job:
• T-Mobile Sidekick owners were the most recent hit by a data recovery issue. Any of these cell phone owners that may have recently reset their phones, removed the battery or had their battery completely run down, most likely assumed that everything would be just fine as all their data was stored with the subsidiary owned by Microsoft, Danger.
However, these unfortunate souls were quite surprised to find that their data had suddenly become irretrievable due to a possible unstable platform. At last check, Microsoft was attempting to restore this lost data and T-Mobile was busily issuing credits to its customers.
• Last year data-backup specialist Carbonite had a major malfunction when servers that were running erroneously resulted in network outages. The end result was data being lost.
• Earlier this year, Gmail accounts in Europe were down for quite some time due to a system-wide update. While data wasn't lost in this case, it was completely inaccessible until the problem was resolved. All that data, not just personal but business as well, completely inaccessible can cause quite a bit of panic and outrage.
So far, these types of outages and lost data have only affected portions of the population. Imagine if the company or entity hit next caters to a much larger, if not world-wide, customer base? The resulting backlash could result in cloud computing being pushed aside in favor of a more reliable system.
What it all comes down to is simply this - in order for the public faith and trust to grow in companies and entities utilizing the cloud, a much more refined and reliable system needs to be put into place. All it takes is one major fiasco and the general computing public will take their data elsewhere.
Follow Technorati