Skype is great and very useful. But this problem underscores a potential problem with too much reliance on technology - particularly when a lot of it is out of the user's control.
This, in conjunction with the server outage in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, is a good reminder that users need redundancy if they are going to rely on web-based applications.
The internet and internet apps are fairly young and prone to a number of things in different parts of the world that are beyond the end user's control (weather, power outages, etc.). Same kind of thing with web-based apps - if you lose your internet connection, you lose the ability to produce. There are any number of places where things can go wrong (user's power goes out, ISP loses power/servers, DOS attacks across the web backbone, etc.)
While they are great resources and often work without a hitch, it's just not good business sense to rely on them as your sole means of communicating or producing work product. Nor good sense for anyone. If your only phone is Skype and Skype goes out, let's hope you don't have an emergency.
It would be interesting to see a comparison of the infancy of the net vs. the infancy of the phone system. Similar hurdles for both: cover a large area, offer service to a large/diverse group of people, ensuring the service works in a variety of conditions, etc.
Discussion on:
Message 4 of 1
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
