Limits of the Cloud Spells Data Loss

It's been quite a week for data loss. First, Microsoft and T-Mobile managed to create an enormous crash, wiping out customer data in both primary and backup storage, without any off-line copies apparently having been included in the system design. Apple uncharacteristically admits a problem with data loss in Snow Leopard, though saying that it only happens in "extremely rare cases," which is little comfort if that's where you find yourself. And Facebook had a database outage that cut 150,000 users from getting into their accounts. And that doesn't even include Google's two Gmail outages last month, which led the Christian Science Monitor to ask if Gmail is the new Twitter. Don't think this is a curious anomaly, as there will be a lot more of this as people move to the cloud.

It's not that no one knows how to handle data for customers. But it's apparently a lot tougher to pull off than you might think. After all, if Microsoft and Google can't do this on a predictable and constant basis, who does that leave? Rackspace? Oh, wait, outage in June. IBM? Right, outage for Air New Zealand on Sunday. Anybody?

Nope.

Moving to cloud-based computing with the type of reliability that people demand -- that is, constant and unending -- is virtually impossible to pull off. And that explains why, even with all the hype with which vendors attend new developments in technology, which mean developments in ways of making money, corporate IT departments have made their reluctance to fully embrace cloud computing palpable. There's a reason: they want to keep their jobs, and when chances taken go wildly wrong, that may not be possible.

So who does that leave as customers? Consumers? Sure, but as the freemium companies have found, they want everything for nothing and are unlikely to pay money for what they do get. The rollicking assumptions by those pushing the term cloud will have to take a rest while people figure out whether anyone can offer the combination of assurance and business model that will actually allow a vendor to thrive.

Image via stock.xchng user arcturus, site standard license.