Google Blasted over Gmail, Google Apps Outages - Cloud Computing

Hello! Long time no write! I suppose I should have posted a "Gone for the summer" banner on the blog site. That, however, would have made it seem like I've been on vacation. Basically, I've been busy! Enough people have pinged me about not writing that I figured I better get back to it. Not only that but having Net News Reader show my blog as a dinosaur hurt. So here we go....

I've seen a number of posts in the blogosphere this week discussing whether the very public problems of Gmail/Google Apps and Apple's MobileMe signify that SaaS (Software as a Service) is not yet ready for prime time. Given that I'm headed to Colorado Springs, CO in a ten days to pick up a CIO 100 award on behalf of Celestica for a SaaS application built on top of e2open, I thought I'd raise the topic here.

Seems to me that this area of innovation is no different than any other. Risk must be explicitly considered in the adoption of any technology, new or not. A simple formula I use when planning a personal flight is: risk of something bad happening times the impact when it does. Small risk times big potential impact makes it a big risk and likely a bad idea without a lot of thought being given to mitigation. The same brief calculation can save your project and maybe your job.

It never ceases to amaze me how rarely this simple bit of planning is done by technologists at all levels. Failing to do so, failing to ask this question in project reviews at least obliquely can cost your company dearly. Often it seems that we just don't want to discuss the risk level for fear of getting a project cancelled. We're invested in seeing it through to the end. We WANT it to succeed. Discussing the risk, planning for the potential for failure is a way to decrease the probability for significant impact in the event your risk comes to light.

Clearly Salesforce.com has proved that SaaS can work. e2open as well. Right tools for the right application.

What's your take?

Google Blasted over Gmail, Google Apps Outages - Cloud Computing: "
Cloud Computing - eWeek

Google Blasted over Gmail, Google Apps Outages
( Page 1 of 13 )

Google isn't supposed to go down. Yet Google Gmail and Google Apps went down for 15 hours Aug. 6 and 7. And on Aug. 11, Gmail went down for 2 hours. Users made their discontent known in discussion boards and blogs, raising the broader question: If they can't rely on Google as their Web platform, who can they rely on?
by Clint Boulton


Google Blasted over Gmail,
Google Apps Outages
By Clint Boulton
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Clint Boulton here. Are users making too much of these "

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