My last blog post on how Google is helping to damage the feasibility of cloud computing generated a lot of comments. I was called everything from a Luddite to a Microsoft shill. Well, I have something more to say on this subject:

Let's start with the claim that client/server apps are just as vulnerable and are less dependable than cloud computing. Well, for the most part that is true -- but for business owners, there is a perception that plays a much bigger part in the reliability puzzle, and that is control.

Simply put, if your SAAS/cloud computing provider goes down, you are powerless to do anything until the problem is resolved. With client/server applications, small-business owners have the illusion that they can do something to speed recovery -- everything from rebooting systems to restoring from backup. Note that I used the word "illusion." Illusion drives perception, and for the typical SMB operator, controlling the fate of their IT assets is best left in their own hands than in the cloud.

Now, someone felt that my comments were akin to a Microsoft-sponsored message. If that were the case, would I be telling VARs how to use the perception of SAAS services to unsell services such as Microsoft Live? The idea was to inform SBS2008 VARs that there is an argument to stop their customers from becoming mindless sheep to Microsoft's own hosted services and to keep that business for themselves.

To those who felt that this was an argument best made years ago, I can only add this: Google's and Amazon's SAAS problems happened recently, not years ago, and that in itself should be reason enough to revisit the merits of cloud computing, SAAS and Web 2.0. I am a big advocate of SAAS technology and hosted solutions. But many VARs servicing the SMB market need to know what the perceptions of the technologies can be and how that can affect a customer's decisions. The idea here is to play devil's advocate and use that as a way to enhance your offerings.

Simply put, if it is a technology that can "go down," then the VAR has the opportunity to sell something else or to enhance that offering to improve reliability. Take any business today: All rely on reliable electric service. If a business is in an area where electricity is not 100 percent reliable and the business completely counts on that reliability (think hospital, ambulance services, police, ISPs, etc.), what do they do? They buy a generator, so they are never without power.

The time has come for VARs to think about selling "generators" to their SAAS customers, and that will put the argument of reliability and control of hosted solutions to rest once and for all!