[risotto]

These outages are very rough. Clearly a lot of the Internet is building out on AWS, and not using multiple zones correctly in the first place. But AWS can have multi-zone problems too as we see here. Nobody is perfect.

But what people forget is: AWS has a world class team of engineers first fixing the problem, and second making sure it will never happen again. Same with Heroku, EngineYard, etc.

Host stuff on dedicated boxes racked up somewhere and you will not go down with everyone else. But my dedicated boxes on ServerBeach go down for the same reasons: hard drive failure, power outages, hurricanes, etc. And I don't have anyone to help me bring them back up, nor the interest or capacity to build out redundant services myself.

My Heroku apps are down, but I can rest easy knowing that they will bring them back up with out an action on my part.

The cloud might not be perfect but the baseline is already very good and should only get better. All without you changing your business applications. Economy of scale is what the cloud is about.

[ANH]

The cloud might not be perfect but the baseline is already very good and should only get better.

Do we have reason to believe that it will only get better? I think it's possible the complexity of the systems we are building and the traffic they encounter will outpace our ability to manage them. Not saying I think it's the most likely outcome, but I don't feel as confident as you.

[risotto]

Food for thought for sure. True, nothing can get better forever...

But do we believe in "economy of scale" for computer and Internet systems in this age? Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc. have already proven to me that they have enough human and financial capital to architect and run systems that show economies of scale.

It's a bit scary to think about what it will mean when this runs out, but for now I personally feel confident that things are getting much better, and will continue to do so.