So right around the time last week’s post on “Cloud Computing” was hitting cyberspace, Sony’s PlayStation Network went down, followed closely by Amazon’s web services arm. (The latter two occurrences, totally unrelated to the former . . . really, I promise!)
Now, Sony and Amazon are two giants of the cloud computing space. As of this post, neither Amazon nor the PlayStation Network appears back up to 100% operational. Sony’s gamers and multi-media consumers aren’t happy, nor are business customers big and small who rely on Amazon to bring their products to market.
So what gives?
There aren’t any definites yet as to exactly what happened to cause these disruptions. What’s clear, though, is that some of the issues raised in my earlier post are real concerns. For instance, what does one do when the cloud goes down? How do cloud users get to the remote information and applications they rely on—and many for their livelihoods?
Big companies can afford redundancies and contingencies for their cloud needs, but what about individual consumers and small business owners who will be looking to the cloud for their email, entertainment, and computing needs?
You’ll find no technical answers here from me. But make no mistake, the cloud is coming. In fact, it’s already here. Let’s hope lessons can be learned from these glitches and their aftermath to keep the cloud from experiencing too much stormy weather going forward.
