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Can you trust the cloud mega-companies with critical aspects of your business continuity? Google decision highlights a key risk of relying on public cloud providers for business continuity. David Honour comments. In December 2010 Google launched Message Continuity, a new cloud-based business continuity service for Microsoft Exchange enterprise users. Now, just over a year later, Google has announced the closure of the service, leaving hundreds of organizations with the headache of finding an alternative Microsoft Exchange business continuity service. (More details here). While Google has stated that existing contracts will continue to be serviced until their renewal date, for some early adopters of Message Continuity this may only give them a few weeks, or even days, to source an alternative solution. Google’s decision is not only a problem for Message Continuity users; it raises a warning flag about the wisdom of relying on the public cloud mega-companies for any services which may be critical to your day-to-day activities; or for business continuity. The cloud undoubtedly brings many new opportunities for business continuity: but the old adage ‘caveat emptor’ has never been more crucial. Service level agreements only apply whilst your supplier is in business; and there is certainly no requirement for suppliers to provide any support or service once a contract expires. After the Message Continuity decision would you ever trust Google to host a mission-critical service again?
•Date: 27th January 2012 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: Cloud computing
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