Gmail was out this morning...again. The outage affected only a small percentage of Gmail users, but in the wake of Tuesday's Google News outage the lack of reliability from Google isn't helping justify the business case for embracing the cloud.
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Google is arguably the primary champion of cloud computing. The Web is what Google does. Google has a virtually endless list of products and services that are all delivered via the Web from the cloud.
Google is not content with dominating Web search or search engine advertising. It has an ongoing crusade to deliver business productivity from the Web. Google is taking on Microsoft head-to-head across a range of markets in an effort to wrest control from the desktop and move the computing experience to the Web.
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[R]epeated outages damage the credibility of the cloud. Enterprises that are considering the pros and cons of moving office productivity or communications to the cloud have reason to be concerned when the poster child of cloud computing can't provide reliable availability.
I know all the excuses, from how huge demand makes Google a "victim of its own success" to "what do you expect for free?" Nevertheless, they are just excuses.
Rather than adding features that add only questionable value to our lives, such as Sidewiki and Fast Flip news, maybe Google needs to stop, take a deep breath, and focus on quality and reliability for products many of us use every day?
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Google needs to protect its reputation--and the marketability of its cloud services--by improving reliability and being more open with users about the details of even small outages.
Google Outages Damage Cloud Credibility
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