Recent failures highlight growing pains for cloud computing

<p>Over the past year, the technology world has been enamored by the possibilities of moving into the cloud.</p><p>That's the latest trend in computing that enables consumers to forget about storing their software and data on local hard drives -- where it can be zapped by electrical surges and soft-drink spillage -- and let companies such as Amazon.com Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. worry about keeping it safe on a network of remote servers.</p><p>The cloud computing concept is so appealing that the city of Los Angeles is considering scrapping its e-mail system and replacing it with a cloud-based offering from Google, joining more than 2 million businesses already using that company's system.</p><p>But a series of incidents involving cloud computing has poked holes in the hype bubble. They have raised larger questions about the cloud's dependability and whether it is ready for use by a broader group of workers and businesses.</p><p>Last week, a computer failure cut off many users of the Sidekick mobile device from large amounts of personal data, including contacts, calendars, and notes, that were stored on Microsoft servers. Microsoft and T-Mobile Inc. are the respective maker and carrier of the device.</p><p>Microsoft later said the failure was confined to a smaller system run by Danger Inc., its subsidiary that makes the Sidekick, and that much of the data eventually would be restored. But the company also said it was not just the primary Danger database that failed but the backup too, and that restoring the lost data would require rebuilding the system from the bottom up.</p><p>Last month, Google weathered a pair of outages of its cloud-based e-mail system, one of which lasted for nearly two hours, after the company made an error upgrading its own systems.</p><p>And in August, a cyber attack originating from eastern Europe knocked Twitter offline for hours, a blow from which it took the messaging service days to recover fully.</p><p>"It's still the early stages of this," said John Pescatore, an online security analyst at research company Gartner Inc., adding that services such as Google's Gmail and Microsoft's Hotmail started as free products for consumers.</p><p>Both companies are pitching their online services to governments, universities and big businesses.</p><p>"As these clouds start to go after enterprise dollars, they'll build in the reliability and security," Pescatore said, but reaching the necessary level of sophistication might take the companies a few more years.</p><p>As e-mail, word processing and data storage continue to move from users' computers to the Web, companies must fortify their servers from potential disasters -- natural and man-made -- to help ensure that the data and the applications are accessible at all times.</p><p>Google and Microsoft, which have been proponents of cloud computing, say they are well aware of the risks they face. In regulatory filings, where they must legally disclose risks and liabilities to shareholders, Google and Microsoft reveal a parade of potential nightmares.</p><p>"Our systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, terrorist attacks, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures, computer viruses, computer denial of service attacks," as well as sabotage and vandalism, says Google's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.</p><p>Microsoft's SEC filing strikes a similarly haunting chord, saying "a catastrophic event that results in the destruction or disruption of any of our critical business or information technology systems could harm our ability to conduct normal business."</p><p>Although the probability of a "catastrophic events" may be exceedingly low, the recent cluster of damaging incidents has shown that cloud operators are still vulnerable.</p><p>In the case of Los Angeles, concerns about protecting government data have prompted Google to announce the development of a "government cloud," in which government data would be stored separately from that of other Google users -- complete with more stringent security requirements.</p><p>Cloud proponents often point to the banking and credit card industries, where huge amounts financial data are stored online. In those sectors, which have been operating relatively smoothly for years, worries are more muted.</p><p>"This problem has been solved in other industries in other ways," said Randi Levin, Los Angeles' chief technology officer, who has pushed for Google's cloud e-mail system. "When you have companies like Microsoft and Google that have the resources to approach these problems, they're going to come up with creative solutions.</p><p>"Is it going to be 100 percent?" she asked. "There's probably going to be a time when we may have an issue. But what don't we have an issue with?"</p>