Despite Google's Gmail problems, I am still a fan of cloud computing, I think anything that makes the physical world of computing easier to manage is the future of data processing! I also think the cloud is the future when it comes to how applications are developed and distributed throughout the enterprise.
But, thanks to Google, Amazon and others, I am beginning to think computing in the cloud is just a pipe dream. Why would I say that? It's simple, until cloud computing (or SaaS) becomes as reliable as client-server computing, many businesses just won't risk it! Google's gmail outage only helps to reinforce that belief!
While many companies offering cloud computing solutions can attest to the fact that they have reliability down to the science, it is the big names out there that generate the news, and help to solidify people's opinions. In Google's case, one has to wonder which is scarier - the fact that Gmail went down or what the root cause was. After all, if a well respected, cutting edge technology giant like Google can't keep something as basic as email up and running, how can we expect anyone to do it? At least that is the impression that Google is leaving most of us with.
For the channel, Google's foibles can be a powerful tool for those still selling client server solutions - just mention Google and Amazon's problems and a shadow of doubt can be place over the whole hosted applications market - a great thing if you are not selling SaaS or cloud computing!
There are some other sales angles that can work here also! Take for example the forthcoming release of Small Business Server 2008, Microsoft's crown jewel of the small business market. SBS 2008 offers extensive integration options with Microsoft's Live service, which is a family of hosted solutions - Now, if I was selling a customer SBS2008, I would use the examples of Google and Amazon as a method to keep SBS deployments using traditional client server technology, instead of handing my customers over to the "Microsoft Live" machine!