Gmail is still causing some users trouble, Computerworld reports. That's three days and counting, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). Not good, especially since we've seen this before.
In some ways, outages are simply the way of the Web. The Internet isn't perfect. If it were, services designed to make it more stable wouldn't exist. There would be no need to pay Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM), Riverbed Technology (Nasdaq: RVBD), and companies like them billions annually to enhance the delivery of online data.
Google takes care of its own infrastructure, though not very well at the moment. The very concept of cloud computing is taking a beating as a result. Count the Electronic Frontier Foundation among the fearmongers.
"It used to be that you would dial up to your Internet service provider, and you would download all your emails onto your computer. The only emails you didn't have were the ones you didn't pick up," said Cindy Cohn, the foundation's legal director, in an interview with The Washington Post.
There's a huge problem with this thesis. It assumes that the old AOL or classic email services supplied by EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK) or United Online (Nasdaq: UNTD) are better at delivering mail than Google. History says otherwise.
On Monday, I argued that a system for synchronizing cloud data locally on a network-attached back-up drive might mollify critics. "If I know tech and developers -- and I've known more than my share -- a solution for this is either under development or already exists," I wrote at the time. Turns out that I was right, and Big Money investors really like the idea.
TechCrunch reports that legendary Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers is leading a $10 million round of funding for start-up Egnyte, which specializes in helping small and midsized business store data in the cloud and back it up to a local system of network-attached storage devices.
New Google CEO Larry Page, flush with a $35 billion war chest, should already be on the phone negotiating a buyout. Do you agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think about the Gmail outage, Google's acquisition strategy, and the features and foibles of cloud computing using the comments box below. You can also rate Google in Motley Fool CAPS.
Interested in more info on the stocks mentioned in this story? Add Akamai, EarthLink, Google, Riverbed Technology, or United Online to your watchlist.
