'Cloud computing' failure hits Internet

A failure in Amazon.com's so-called cloud computing service knocked many Internet sites out for most of a day, some Web site officials said.

The problems Thursday meant Internet users were unable to access a number of sites, including Quora.com, Reddit.com, GroupMe.com and Scvngr.com, The New York Times reported.

The service lets companies rent space on servers that belong to Amazon with the advantage of large data centers and massive computing power.

The cloud is enterprise-ready

"We don't think the cloud is enterprise-ready," said Jimmy Tam of Peer Software, which provides data backup for businesses. "Are you in effect going to trust your corporate jewels to these cloud providers?"

"Evidently you're not in control of your data, your information," said Campbell McKellar, founder of Loosecubes, one of the Web sites that was off-line Thursday. "It's a major business interruption. I'm getting business interruption insurance tomorrow, believe me, and perhaps we get a different cloud provider as a backup."