Many people were left frustrated yesterday when Google’s popular email service Gmail crashed for around 20 minutes, but the cause of the crash portends big problems for future technology.
The dire warning comes after Gmail failed yesterday because of a glitch in Google’s cloud-computing service Sync, according to Wired.com.
Sync is a feature of Google’s Chrome web browser and it allows users to log into their Google account and access their bookmarks, extensions and applications on whichever computer they log onto.
When the glitch hit Sync’s servers yesterday it caused a cascade of problems in every Google product associated with Sync, including Gmail and Chrome which repeatedly crashed on user’s computers yesterday.
Although yesterday’s problems were relatively minor, they are the first example of the problems that can come about because of cloud-based computing, which is expected to be the future of computing.
Currently, computer users store most of their information and programs on the hard drive of their personal computer, but in the future services like Sync and Apple’s iCloud will expand, forcing users to store the vast majority of their data on large servers that are out of the user’s direct control.
The benefits of cloud-based computing are numerous, but the biggest benefit is that users can access their information from any device that has an internet connection.
Yesterday’s problem at Google demonstrates the downside because any little glitch in the main servers will cause a trickle down of problems for every single user who tries to access the server.