Backing Up the Weakest 2.0 Link

August 15, 2008 at 6:16 am · Filed under Amazon, Development, Mobile Applications, MobileMe, Platforms

Where is your data’s weakest link? In the rush to return to mainframe like applications and dumb terminals accessing them… sorry I mean rich Web 2.0 sites running powerful applications on any platform via the web browser… it’s worth considering your worst case scenarios. While these services are run by large companies, with bundles of cash and servers, problems will happen…

Apple’s MobileMe service has had a rough launch, including loss of emails and access to many of its users.

Google’s Gmail service went down recently for a few hours not because of problems with the mail server, but because the Contacts app section was broken.

Amazon’s S3 storage had some server issues, which resulted in a number of sites loosing access to their files, Wordpress.com being one of them.

I’m not deliberately picking on these specific issues, but to use them to illustrate that… er… stuff happens. And if your strategy relies on these services, you’re passing over a vital part of your infrastructure to these third parties. Some form of back-up or second level that defaults back to your site or a reserve archive makes business sense.

So consider that, and ask yourself if you’re comfortable with the emerging way of mobile phone applications being built around the client/server model. Even though the power, capability and storage of modern handsets are in excess of the PC’s we were using a few years ago, there are more and more applications keeping the data on an external site.

Is this what you want for your personal data? For it to be held somewhere else, where anything could happen to it? And that’s not just loss of access or loss of data, but Amazon S3 comes under the jurisdiction of the US government – for UK users who are comfortable with something like the Data Protection act, those restrictions just aren’t in place in the US. Overtly paranoid maybe, but it’s one consideration. And there is always the nightmare of what happens if the company you are using goes bust (and that should be a primary concern with web 2.0 style start-ups!)

The solution, for me at least, is two fold,. The first is to only use applications that allow me local storage on my phone (and this they become part of my backup strategy for my phone); the second is if this isn’t possible, the web part of the app must allow me to ‘dump’ the data out to an archive file in some form, or let me get to the data.

It’s not perfect, but if I know I can reconstruct my data when the server of ‘cool idea’ goes boom, I’m happy. Can you say the same for your information?

Comments

Apple Admits to Issues With MobileMe Including the “Push”

July 17, 2008 at 2:09 pm · Filed under Apple, Mobile messaging 2.0, MobileMe

In an effort to fix the delayed and proper workings of MobileMe, Apple has offered a 30 day extension to existing users of .Mac. They also have re-defined their use of the word “push” in the MobileMe syncing process.

I received this via email and I’m sure many existing .Mac users have seen the same.

We have recently completed the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we had hoped.
Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My Mac, and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the web apps are now up and running.
Another snag we have run into is our use of the word “push” in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe “cloud,” changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices. So even though things are indeed instantly pushed to and from your iPhone and the web apps today, we are going to stop using the word “push” until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too.
We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge. Your extension will be reflected in your account settings within the next few weeks.
We hope you enjoy your new suite of web applications at me.com, in addition to keeping your iPhone and iPod touch wirelessly in sync with these new web applications and your Mac or PC.
Thank you,

How nice of them to clear all that up for us, but answer me this… why does one need to pay $99 a year just to have an email address? Can’t they just omit all the rest of the add-ons that people chose not to use and offer a nice basic email address for free? It’s not like they can’t afford it.

Comments