Microsoft cloud services hit by outage

The cloud like as not an okay idea for big business. It doesn't make a lick of sense for the average Joe to use. I don't give a crap about all the hype about the advantages of cloud computing. Fact of the matter is for one, specifically what happened to M$ + if you reach for the cloud(s). you better absolutely read the EULA. Or until further notice have an attorney interpret it for you. Jeff

The cloud is not a good idea for any business that wants to stay in business and control their data. Especially not using anything MS related, they have the worst history of building redundency into their network and software, as bloated as things are. Cloud is good for free services only, free MS OFFICE to compete with the other free versions if they want. The internet is too unreliable and any business or person that puts critical or personal data on the colud is just asking for trouble to save a few pennies. When that cloud service shuts down you are stuck, they may allow you to get your data, however there is no software to use it on. When a software company shuts down, you however have the software and can migrate to new software. This most likely would not be an option with most cloud services. My wife works for a major international company that uses some cloud services, as so then as locates all their servers in one city. It is a major problem because most of the workforce must access the servers over the internet, it is actually slow and frequently unavailable, even from the company offices. From a IT point of view it is cheaper having all the IT people in one city, yet support sucks as does reliability. People spend more time futzing with computers to try to make them work and less time working. Security is so tight that when when traveling, more than 75% of the time they cannot even access e-mail as you have to use propriatiry connection manager and VPN to access the internet and it more often than not can't connect at all! At one point my wife considered taking a second laptop on travel to connect to the internet, but at the time they locked it down furthermore and even accessing e-mail from a non-company computer is impossible. I would only recommend cloud services when the company owns them and the cloud does not extend beyond the company site. Mirrored servers across sites, nevertheless locating severs in one city for a large multinational company is painting a target on yourself. Someone only has to hack into one site to steal all your data. Clearly the sheer volume makes that prospect nearly impossible also.