Darkside of SaaS?

As we move more and more of our computing to the cloud one thing will become painfully obvious. It is not the service provider with the coolest interface or lowest cost that will win. It is the provider that can deliver 24/7 world class support. Many Web 2.0 providers do not yet understand that consumers are starting to run their businesses on these platforms. Scalability, availability and reliability are not just nice words but everything when your living depends on your online presence.

One of the most annoying things is the inability to talk to a human being when things go seriously wrong through no fault of your own. Here is a dirty little secret about SaaS: a major screw up on the provider's part can bring your online world tumbling down in a NY second. Try to find a number that you can call and ask a question like WTF just happened? Nope, can't do it. Just have to submit a ticket to the cloud and hope that someone responds in time to save that major deal you are working on.

Well maybe if you upgrade your support subscription you get a phone number to call. Nope, what you get is someone who will look at the ticket faster, but that does not mean that resources have been allocated. In other words, your entire online business could be in someone else's hands; talk about a risky proposition. Think that it won't happen to you? Think again. Does this mean that I have soured on my view that SaaS is the future. Not entirely. But you can be damn sure that I am going to better understand my support options and take my business where I am satisfied that top quality IT production support is available.

I want to collaborate with organizations that understand what a "production" website means. It means that I lose money when it is down. Which means that their quality assurance better be top notch and when the inevitable screw up happens that they respond like there hair is on fire. We are not there yet folks and it would not surprise me if some big name providers don't fall off the cliff.