Skype failure and the Enterprise 2.0 mess

Skype is down today, which sucks for those of us who rely upon it on a daily basis. From the Skype support site:

Some of you may be having problems logging into Skype. Our engineering team has determined that it’s a software issue. We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours.

Large-scale business adoption of Enterprise 2.0 infrastructure applications, such as Skype, will only occur when these new technologies can survive comparison with established utilities. Society has demanded that basic services -- water, phone, electricity, roads, and so on -- must adhere to certain levels of reliability and availability. Likewise, business users expect their software infrastructure to provide high reliability, especially in mission-critical domains.

Recently, VOIP supplier SunRocket discontinued operations with little notice, leaving thousands of customers in the lurch. And just this week, Google announced they are suddenly leaving the video rental/sale business, leaving their paid customers high and dry.

Such high-profile failures make consumers and businesses wary of adopting Enterprise 2.0 tools.

Update: For more Enterprise 2.0 failure, see this post about Google Grand Central.

Update 2: For a broader perspective on the impact and benefits of Enterprise 2.0 tools, see this post.