Trust the cloud they say… here’s another reason to be cautious

One of the reasons I am wary of any cloud based service is the ability of said service provider to withdraw their services with little to no notice.  In truth this can happen to any company be it a cloud vendor or a reseller.  One real world case has just come to light with Cloud Backup based vendor Doyenz giving it’s UK clients just 3 days notice of their intent to withdraw their services to that entire market.  Oh crap.  What will those people that have based their backup and disaster recovery solutions do now?  And with only 3 days notice?  Doyenz have nicely informed them that they have until the end of the month to get their data off their cloud system after which time it will be gone… forever.  I don’t envy those clients that are now going to have to find another solution so quickly.  I don’t envy those resellers who whole heartedly endorsed Doyenz as a solid business partner behind which they obviously pitched their reputation.

What if this were a cloud based CRM provider. You store all your sales/marketing leads in there, all customer contact, everything. Suddenly you have less than 3 weeks to not only find another provider, but also move your entire history over which may well be neigh on impossible in that timeframe. What about the cost of doing this? What about the disruption to your organisation in doing this?

How would this have been different if it were an onpremise solution with a vendor going away?  They would still have a working solution, just no support for it. The software would still work.  They would have more time to look for alternatives and then decide on a course of action.

I’m not saying all cloud is bad.  I’m saying that this is another thing that needs to be seriously considered with any cloud solution is that vendors may just close up shop.  And with it, your data could be gone.  Forever.

If I were a Doyenz client or reseller in the US, I’d be very nervous right now.  I’d be looking for alternate solutions sooner than later, because if what they’ve done in the UK market is a sign on how they plan to handle things elsewhere then I’d be scared.