The Problem With Cloud Computing and Kentucky
Posted On: 2008-10-20
There's no doubt that we live in interesting times. In the past you could take up a huge amount of office space with filing cabinets and shelves for storage for records and everything you did in business was stashed away for years just in case you might need those records one day.
Now that we do much of our business online the amount of storage we need is a whole lot less than any business needed in the past. Instead of having filing cabinets we have hard drives that take up almost no space at all but even that is too much for some people. For those people we have cloud computing where everything is stored somewhere else ... on some other person's servers ... and no space is needed in the office or the home for all those files.
Google's Gmail and their office applications are a perfect example of cloud computing. You don't have to store any of it on your home computer or your laptop because it's always available online ... or is it?
In the last few days I've seen two good reasons why total dependency on cloud computing is downright dangerous and can totally destroy your business.
The first instance popped up a couple of days ago when reports began to surface of 502 Server Errors appearing when businesses tried to access their Gmail accounts. Now these reports weren't referring to the free version of Gmail that many of us use, they were referring to the accounts that businesses actually pay Google to provide.
According to Sergey Brin there are over a million businesses that use the paid version of Gmail via Google Apps and not only are some of them having problems accessing their email and other files but Google doesn't seem to be able to fix the problem in what some might consider to be a timely manner. And that's causing a lot of hassles for some of those one million users.
The second problem involved a fairly well-known search engine optimization specialist who ran his business through Gmail and Google Office. All his email ran through Gmail and all his office files were there in Google Office. Without warning, and without providing a reason, Google suspended his account.
No more email ... no more office files ... just a terse message advising him that his account was suspended whenever he tried to access his files. Yes, they were and are his files, but Google won't let him see them.
Even worse for this guy is the fact that whenever anyone tries to email him they get a message telling them that his email account has been suspended. Imagine what that must be doing to his business ... no only can't he get his emails but everyone who tries to contact him via email is getting the subliminal message that this guy must have done something wrong because Google suspended his account.
Fortunately for him he did keep backups of all his office files on his own computer but imagine what it would be like to lose everything ... and all your email accounts too.
How would your business survive if you were right into the idea of cloud computing and suddenly all your files were lost whether by accident or by having your account suspended?
Of course I'm not suggesting that you stop using those services ... they're very handy and I have to admit that I love Gmail ... but always keep backups of everything that's important and always have a Plan B that you can quickly switch to if the unthinkable happens.
Only in Kentucky?
You've probably heard by now of the Kentucky judge who decided that it was entirely possible for website owners to arrange to have their sites blocked so that no one in Kentucky could see them.
Sounds crazy doesn't it but I can remember a time not so long ago when a lot of adult sites tried to ensure that they weren't visible in a number of the southern states of America. I can also remember a lot of online video stores and toy stores stating clearly that they would not ship to addresses that were in a large range of postcodes.
I can even remember when that list of postcodes was freely available for adult webmasters to use.
The current rash of sites that are supposed to be banned in Kentucky are all sites relating to gambling but don't be surprised to see someone gain a similar court order that bans adult sites from being visible in that state ... and many others too.
The chances are that we will see that happen and it will be of little use to complain that this is the Internet and you just can't stop people from surfing the Web. The people who make these orders simply don't care about how difficult it might be to comply ... they know that in many instances they can enforce even the craziest of laws and nothing can stop them.
So don't laugh this crazy ban off as being unworkable ... it might be unworkable for webmasters and internet Service Providers but that's irrelevant to the courts. They make the orders and they'll enforce them and you flout them at your peril.
I think it must be time for a cup of coffee down at the beach. See you all on Thursday.