Weathering Storms in the Cloud

Twice over the past few weeks Microsoft’s Office 365 suffered interruptions. The first occurred on August 17th and was reported as a network interruption. Several blogs reported the cause as faulty Cisco equipment, but that fact was not verified by Microsoft. The interruption lasted for three hours and Microsoft has offered a 25% discount to Office 365 customers for the trouble. The second interruption was on September 9th and seems to be tied to the widespread Western US power outage. Any discount has yet to be announced for the second occurrence.

Microsoft is not the only Cloud service to see outages. Clouds, networks, communications and power that make up the Internet have all been down either briefly or for extended periods. Although it is frustrating, it is part of the risk we all accept in using and being dependent on technology.

Power and phone outages have always been disruptive to business. If the power and phones are out, often you have not choice except to close the store or the office. Only in rare cases are backup generators used and then only to keep essential systems like emergency lights and security systems on until the building can be cleared. Hospitals, data centers and essential services are the exception, but even hospitals have limited backup power. Our modern power system is extremely reliable, but it is not faultless. That’s why we keep candles and flashlights in the kitchen.

Cloud Computing relies on centralized servers and the Internet to receive and deliver data to the users. If the servers or the Internet are down, the users experience an interruption. Just like you have a power out kit in your kitchen, you need a Cloud out kit for your office. Your Cloud power out kit should consist of a computer or mobile device so you can continue to work offline locally and save your work until the system is back on.

When email is down, you just have to wait whether you are using a Cloud service or your own email server. If the server didn’t confirm receipt of the email message, the sending server will usually try again for a couple of days before giving up. That means that for short outages, it will be delayed but you’ll get your email. It is always surprising that people perceive email as more reliable than FedEx and as verifiable as Certified Mail – it is not. Email is a great tool and 99.44% of our email gets through but you have to allow for the .56 % that gets lost. Certainly, the email that you can’t miss will be in the later. Use delivery and read receipts to make email verifiable. (The Ivory soap reference to 99.44% is a bit of humor.)

During an interruption, if you still have access to your computer or mobile device, you can compose messages but will have to wait for the system before you can transmit them. With Microsoft Office 365, you can use your Office products offline and transmit to the Cloud when available. For other Cloud products, you have similar options to work offline and locally.

Using Cloud Computing gives you economy of scale and the benefit of redundant systems that you probably don’t have in your home or business. Most problems with power or communications will still be on the user side so be sure you have the ability to work offline locally to prevent disappointment and loss of productivity.