On the dangers of cloud computing
By Felix Pleşoianu. Saturday, 31. January 2009, 08:18:26
The bookmarking service Ma.gnolia.com suffered a catastrophic failure on Friday, January 30, 2009. Now, it's just, you know, bookmarks, and I do have backups of my own, old as they are. No big deal, right? Right. Apparently, they didn't (have backups, that is - Wired Magazine has more details). That's more serious, and people have a right to be upset. After all, putting up a Web service is making an implicit promise to your users. Yes, even if the service is free.
But what exactly is that promise? That your data will be safe? Really, in the hands of a stranger? Same for confidentiality: a secret known by two people isn't a secret. No, I think the real problem is service availability: a Web app makes an implicit commitment to work for you wherever you are, and whenever you need it. That's why Twitter users were so upset last summer; they didn't lose any data, but neither were they able to do what they wanted - heck, maybe needed - to do, while the site was down.
And that, I think, is the real danger of cloud computing: Web apps are single points of failure. If I lose my Internet connection, or if my computer crashes, that doesn't hurt anybody else. But if some online service fails, a lot of people are affected, all at once. It's like a flood, or a fire. Oh wait, no, it isn't. The right analogy is a volcanic erruption. Which raises a serious question.
Is it really wise for us to move en masse to the sides of active volcanoes?
But what exactly is that promise? That your data will be safe? Really, in the hands of a stranger? Same for confidentiality: a secret known by two people isn't a secret. No, I think the real problem is service availability: a Web app makes an implicit commitment to work for you wherever you are, and whenever you need it. That's why Twitter users were so upset last summer; they didn't lose any data, but neither were they able to do what they wanted - heck, maybe needed - to do, while the site was down.
And that, I think, is the real danger of cloud computing: Web apps are single points of failure. If I lose my Internet connection, or if my computer crashes, that doesn't hurt anybody else. But if some online service fails, a lot of people are affected, all at once. It's like a flood, or a fire. Oh wait, no, it isn't. The right analogy is a volcanic erruption. Which raises a serious question.
Is it really wise for us to move en masse to the sides of active volcanoes?
(27%)
WIDGETIZE
Micheál Seosamh # 31. January 2009, 12:48
Anonymous # 31. January 2009, 13:33
Scary stuff. I publish a literary magazine with WordPress.com specifically because it strikes me as more dependable than almost any other alternative - I don't want to take chances with 300 other people's content! I also find their tech support to be reliable and fast. It is in the cloud, though, so maybe it's a poor choice. Particularly with the recession, I am trying to bet on winning horses, and Automattic seems well-funded, but who knows?
Micheál Seosamh # 31. January 2009, 17:00
Now if Google is offline, that's scary
Micheál Seosamh # 31. January 2009, 17:15
Antero Hytönen # 2. February 2009, 20:39
Web services are usually decentralized only as far as one company can reach. Those services run usually top of open source software and open standards, but they're not as open than the stuff they run on. identi.ca is quite interesting example that even web services can be pretty open.
Felix Pleşoianu # 3. February 2009, 05:58
By the way, Ma.gnolia was very open as well, in their own way, and look how much good it did them.
2009-02-04 UPDATE: It did them a lot of good, apparently: Ma.gnolia Using FriendFeed to Restore Users' Data. :O
felixp # 1. April 2009, 02:13