Google: a stumble on the path across the Rubicon

OK, here’s a question. What name do you regard as synonymous with our Internet-driven lives today?

I know. The clue’s in the heading. With its absolute dominance we tend to assume Google just gets things right. Like our banks pre-sub prime, too big to fail. But it has failed recently. Spectacularly so.

So, is this a sign that Google is now out of its league, is this a step too far or just a stumble on the rocky path as it crosses the Rubicon towards Microsoft’s Rome?

This isn’t Kansas any more, Toto

Not Julius Caesar’s words, admittedly. But I bet Google was thinking this. Google’s latest system outages have dented its reputation for light-switch reliability. But should we worry too much about this?

Certainly, you could argue that Google’s move into a Software as a Service provider was arrogant. After all, most PC users have grown up with Microsoft and then along the Yellow Brick Road comes a search engine that thinks it can do it better.

Evolution, not construction

Well, the truth is, it can. But it needs to learn how not to do it sometimes. You see, Google’s distributed infrastructure couldn’t be more different from the monolithic, back-end driven, building block order of a conventional data centre. Its almost organic.

Its like a tree with branches or a brain connected by neural links. No one part is central, its a loosely connected flat framework, a grid of processing power designed to put the power at the point of delivery.

Google’s output conventionally doesn’t come from a central store, it doesn’t own the information it provides, it merely collects it from one point and delivers it somewhere else.

You’ve got mail

Back when Google released Google Mail, the model fitted it to a certain extent. It collected email from everywhere and delivered it everywhere. All it needed to do was create a repository for it while it was in transit. Not a big ask.

Eggs in one basket

Fast forward to application delivery. That’s a totally different ball game. Here the data is stored in one point, Googleville. OK, lots of Googlevilles, but centralised locations, anyway. Where’s Google’s experience in doing that?

In reality, Google has very little. It’s learning on the fly. It’s busking. It’s on a bike without the stabilisers, its bound to wobble. And sometimes crash. At the moment, that’s a good thing. So why do I say that?

Because failing now gives it a chance to get it right for when we all move away from the desktop and into the Cloud. Google is learning the lessons for every major cloud provider already here and those to come.

A little bird told me - but told me too little and too late

The biggest concern about the Google outages was not that they happened, but that Google failed to provide the three W’s. There was no one to say what had happened, why it had and when it would be fixed.

The first anyone heard from Google came from a Tweet on Twitter. And that simply isn’t good enough for a world-class global player.

I’ve worked long enough supporting customers to at least learned one thing. If you have bad news, tell it fast and tell it like it is. People don’t get annoyed about failures, they get annoyed about poor information flow.

Support frameworks - the truth

Microsoft may be sitting smugly now and even consider pointing to its own support framework as an example of how to do it. But it would be deceiving everybody if it did. Because Microsoft’s support is an illusion, a sham.

It doesn’t have a vast army of support staff. It relies on its usually unpaid users and partners - people who have born the pain of using its awful software and learned the hard way to provide the fixes and workarounds.

Google doesn’t have that luxury yet, so must put its hands into its incredibly deep pockets and provide the people to get the information out there.

Using social media to talk to the people

Social media is about moving information between people. It’s Google’s core business, why isn’t it using this for its support framework?

All its needs to do is place key staff out in the social space and give them the information about failures and issues and resolution estimates to pass on. A crucial yet surprising simple exercise but a vital lesson to learn.

The passing of the old way, or Goodnight Microsoft

Google’s path isn’t easy, the road is rocky and there will be obstacles to overcome, mountains to climb and other rivers to cross. But the biggest is behind it. Google crossed its own Rubicon in 2006. And what doesn’t kill it simply makes it stronger for when we all arrive at the gates of Rome.