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Gmail blackout raises questions about productivity

Users of the micro-blogging site Twitter started posting panicked messages, asking fellow users if they had a solution.

An hour later, the British tech website Pocket Lint took a more resigned tone, asking if it was time to make a cup of tea. Then came the smarmily titled blogs about the “GFail.”

As more individuals and companies rely on so-called cloud computing – storing and accessing data on an external website rather than a personal computer – failure of an individual website like Gmail has an increasingly impact.

Prashand K. Gulati, a Dubai-based investor in start-up technology companies, said the outage illustrates security issues with cloud computing.

“The Google outage today is a signal that if you keep everything on their servers, it is a very dangerous strategy,” Gulati, who experienced problems email problems with several of his websites Tuesday, said. “That is a reason why you do not see a lot of corporations using it.”

Baher Al Hakim, who owns Dubai-based company CloudAppers, said he still thinks cloud applications like Gmail are more reliable than traditional email and applications.

“To tell you the truth people always blame the web for reliability issues,” he said, pointing out that online computing makes people feel powerless because there is no internal IT department to call.

Google communicates with most of its users online. During Tuesday’s outage, the company posted a seven line update on its help page, saying it was trying to restore service. Users turned to blogs and social media sites to plea for help.

“Panic!!”

“GMAIL COME BACK!!! I LOVE YOU !!!”

Al Hakim said he thinks periodic failures like Tuesday’s are positive in the long run. “These sort of blackouts will wake people up to the [fact that] the cloud needs to be more reliable. So I won’t change. I won’t get my emails offline.”

emily@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE