Chris Brogan posted the sorry tail of the chap who came back from lunch only to find all his Google services inaccessible - it seems his provider had disabled his account and he was left locked out - no access to mail, docs, images nothing. Turns out it was disabled because of an unauthorized charge attempt.
Over on ZDNet Phil commented with a list of suggestions from keeping backups of documents to doubling up on email backups. Phil quite rightly points out that users of web-apps rely on them for their everyday function, therefore trust in the app, and its provider, is paramount.
Phil goes on to say that;
One point the story highlights is a hard lesson for users: Don’t trust the cloud at this early stage in its evolution.
Which is like saying don’t trust fire because arsonists exist, or don’t give to charity because some of them are scams. It’s an over reaction of the highest order.
What I believe Phil should have given was some simple advice;
As with any product - do a good due diligence round before adoption
Don’t expect enterprise level service and robustness with a "free" solution
All of which is useful but none of which is a warning against using the cloud per se. Phil does make some valid points about the fact that Google users would often love to have the ability to talk to a real person in support - and not wade through layers of automation.
Having said all that there is a niggling thought at the back of my mid… what if I ever lost my Google data?????
The blogosphere is abuzz with discussion about Microsoft’s LiveMesh announcement yesterday. Essentially, and initially, LiveMesh is a platform that allows synchronization (currently PC only) between machines and the clouds by collecting various feeds into one locale.
Given the timing of this announcement, it was fortuitous that I was scheduled to speak with Gibu Thomas, CEO of SugarSync today. I started off by using the opportunity to talk to Gibu about what LiveMesh means for his own offering.
He’s very upbeat saying that the main takeaway from the Microsoft announcement is that it is an affirmation of what they have been espousing for the past 4 years. Gibu told me that for the first year of their offering they were unable to obtain funding - synchronisation wasn’t seen as a growth area. The industry realises that under todays multi-device scenario, synch is a core requirement for users. I then went on to ask Gibu some other questions about his offering and mesh in general.
What comments can you make as to Microsoft’s abilities to create a compelling synch platform?
What Microsoft says is important, it is a real validation for SharpCast (the company behind SugarSync) that Microsoft deems it so important and sees that there is in fact a monetizable business behind it - the economics of bandwidth and storage are such that broader synch options cannot be free on an ongoing basis.
If mesh is important however, mesh providers need to be Switzerland - any device, be it WinTel, Mac, Symbian, iPhone etc need to be part of it. It is hard to see how a proprietary player can create a truly neutral mesh platform.
There are lots of in-the-clouds backup options out there - explain what gives your offering a point of difference?
It is all about reducing complexity in people’s lives. SugarSync can be thought of as successful when people forget it exists - but it fulfils their requirements in the background. For years the notion of “your stuff anywhere and on anything” has been in existence. That notion will come to fruition when it occurs with no real user time and effort, but a seamless and background set of processes.
One of SugarSync’s points of difference is that it provides for near instantaneous live active syncing. When a user accesses a copy remotely it is synched back to all his other devices. There is a need to make synch transparent, to abstract it from the specific devices a user may have. While other offerings rely on replicating files from device to device, we’ve created functionality that avoids the bandwidth and memory issues this might raise this includes inline transcoding of file types and the ability to intelligently route the syncing and downloading direction.
It’s about repurposing the synch experience, the success of Blackberry is an example of this, it succeeded in large part due to it’s transparency and immediacy, users didn’t need to create a schedule for syncing - from their perspective their Blackberry data IS the same data as on their Outlook instance - Mesh platforms should work similarly.
One of the biggest barriers to people moving their data to the clouds (be it office productivity apps, SaaS accounting or backup) is the trust factor. People are scared that a) someone might do something dodgy with their data b) the service provider might disappear along with the data. How do you instill confidence in your customers that you’re here to stay?
There is a difference between perception and reality when it comes to this issue. A few years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of leaving my credit card with an e-commerce business, but would have typed it in each time. Now I have no qualms having Amazon store my cc number given the ease it gives me to be able to one click purchase.
People’s perceptions will shift given time, and mesh platforms will give the user the ability to choose which files sync to the clouds and which only sync between devices. The data itself is encrypted on the wire and in the data centre.
We also escrow the key - while some users might wish to hold the key themselves, they are less keen when they realise that if the key is lost then so is the data. More savvy users however are able to obtain the key thus providing yet another layer of security for the offering.
The benefit synch offerings have over cloud backup is that if the provider disappears, the data is still there, synched between all the devices - it doesn’t rely on data in the clouds and is thus arguably an easier sell than pure play SaaS
Bandwidth is a big limiting factor to the move to the clouds. Do you see that you’re providing a solution that will become more palatable as speeds increase or do you have some other strategies to ease the connectivity pain?
Bandwidth well get better with time, having said that users demands will also increase. Technologies can help to increase the efficiency of the downloads and take specific use cases and solve them (for example creating a P2P sync for some usages). There is an initial price to pay to get data synched - like mirrors in lift lobbies users should take the opportunity caused by a meaty upload to go out and smell the roses!
Any last words Gibu?
The real key is that the move to a mesh situation is like the move from VCRs to TiVO. With synch there have been many point solutions that solved a subset of the user needs, but it’ll be the platforms that provide a broader offering that will create real user value. Synch is an important offering as it encompasses backup, sharing, access and collaboration.
Disclosure - Sharpcast has given Diversity Limited free SugarSync access.
The HP Upline system launched last week was yet another in the plethora of online (SaaS) backup solutions - I blogged about some others a few days ago.
Only a week into the service however, Upline was down, with users receiving the following email;
Dear HP Upline Service subscriber,
On Thursday, April 17th, HP suspended operation of the HP Upline Service.
We fully anticipate that suspension of the Upline Service will be temporary
and short in duration, and will notify you when the Upline Service is
operational again.
Please accept our sincere apology for this unanticipated interruption of
your access to the Upline Service. We appreciate your patience as we launch
this new service, and are working hard to minimize inconvenience caused by
this service interruption.
If you are a resident of the United States, your subscription will remain in
effect and you will be able to continue using the Upline Service for the
duration of your subscription period once the Upline Service is operational
again. Thank you for your patience, and we look forward to providing you
with the HP Upline Service.
If you are not a resident of the United States, we regretfully must inform
you that the initial launch of the HP Upline Service was intended for United
States residents only. Unfortunately, our filtering tools did not
adequately screen for subscribers residing outside of the United States. We
thank you for your early adoption of the Upline Service, and look forward to
being able to provide the HP Upline Service to you when we launch it in your
country of residence. Since the HP Upline Service is presently offered for
use within the United States only, we will be discontinuing your current
subscription. After we notify you that the Upline Service is operational
again, you will have a limited period of time to access and download files
that you have uploaded onto the HP Upline Service servers. After that time
period, you will no longer have access to your present HP Upline Service
account. If you would like to be contacted by us when the HP Upline Service
is made available in your country of residence, please send us an email at
help@upline.com. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Sincerely,
The HP Upline Team
Three things here;
1) What sort of amateur operation fails to get their filtering sorted so that they inadvertently miss sort geographical subscribers, for that matter what does geographical boundaries have to do with a vanilla type service like backup?
2) As I’ve said before - key for SaaS vendors is trust - customers need to have firm belief in the security and integrity of the offering and in the robust protection of their most valuable asset, their data. Debacles such as this one do nothing to further the business case for organisations to switch from installed to SaaS apps
3) In this era of ubiquitous PaaS offerings, what sort of problem necessitates pulling a service such as this one
All in all a very bad look for HP. (Thanks for the info MF).
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