Users Losing Interest in Cloud Drama?

Hard on the heels of IBM’s important announcement of its expanded, enterprise-ready, mainstream-oriented SmartCloud services and capabilities comes news of significant Cloud outages for other significant Cloud brand names, notably RIM and Sony. RIM’s global messaging network has been pummeled with outages for several days; there is no word as yet what caused/is causing the outages. Meanwhile, Sony reports its PlayStation network has been hacked again, only weeks after regaining most of the ground it lost due to a weeks-long, hacker-enabled outage earlier this year.

What’s missing this time around is the previous plethora of high-profile news and blogger reports, shrilly harping on the vulnerabilities of Cloud, and the dangers in trusting online services with critical (or simply important or useful) data and operations.

We’re not sure if this connotes increased acceptance or expectations of disruptions and outages, a lack of media interest, or another factor as yet unseen. But our best guess is that it’s driven by a waning of panic by users, based on their increased acceptance that such things happen, and for which they should be prepared.

At this point in the evolution and availability of Cloud-based technology, services, and information, no one is going to be surprised at outages and disruptions any more than they are surprised at outages or disruptions in telephone service.

We are not dismissing or down-playing the personal and business impacts of Cloud outages and disruptions, and the more we use Cloud, the more potentially vulnerable we all are. Providers of Cloud-based services simply must continue to get better at protection and prevention in all aspects of their business and technologies.

But we do like to believe that enough consumers and business users (and their bosses) are smart enough to plan for and work around (or through) Cloud outages and disruptions. It ain’t rocket science to plan for a lack of availability, access, or service, it’s common sense.

Bruce Guptill

Most research firms can explain what happened; some can explain what is happening. Saugatuck Technology excels at understanding both in order to explain what else is likely to occur, and to guide its clients toward the actions that deliver them the greatest business value while enabling the safest business path.
To accomplish this, and to continually improve the value of Saugatuck’s work to clients in a Cloud-obscured marketplace, Saugatuck SVP and Head of Research Bruce Guptill pushes his team to continually re-examine and re-invent the company’s research programs to focus more on the costs, benefits, effects, and value of an ever-changing mix of technologies and providers in different markets.
Guptill’s own technology and business background laid a solid foundation for such a flexible, yet stable, approach to IT research value for clients. His technology research work includes mobility, collaborative IT, telecom, data networking, web commerce, and electronic marketplaces; his research work for enterprise IT and business clients includes return on IT investment, total cost of IT ownership, and business planning for IT. His research and guidance on vendor channel management, market identification and development, and buyer behavior analysis has enabled hundreds of established and startup IT providers to find, enter, and profit from new and traditional markets, while helping to guide user enterprise leaders toward optimal IT procurement and vendor management.
Guptill’s research background includes several years as a VP and research director with Gartner, senior positions with TeleChoice and Robert Frances Group, and editorial work within the IDG companies, including four years as a writer and editor with NetworkWorld. His marketing business focus was honed as VP of marketing for firms ranging from custom development providers to non-IT firms in aviation and other industries. His sales and channel experience started by traveling with a sample bag, then working for IT VARs, then advising telecom and wireless carriers on partner choices, to developing partner programs for traditional and Cloud-based software development firms and ISVs.
Guptill holds an MBA in marketing and finance, and a BA in the psychology and business of mass media communication. He is licensed to fly airplanes, drive boats, and sell houses; he is also a certified baseball coach, serves on the boards of regional civic groups, and is a serial home renovator. Married with three children, Guptill resides on Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts, and is a lifelong fan of the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and the University of Connecticut Huskies.

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