Internet traffic overload: What does it mean for cloud computing services?

Michael Jackson’s passing and the outpouring of grief and curiosity made its way full force onto the Internet last week, slowing down webmail, news sites and search engines and grinding Twitter to a halt. It made me wonder if customers of cloud computing services are going to start asking what cloud providers have in place to account for such events.

Or maybe providers of cloud computing services have such a deep reserve of resources that it’s a nonissue.

Still, many companies can’t afford to have their Web-based applications slow down for the day, or longer, so just how deep are those reserves, and does the responsibility to ensure acceptable application delivery times rest on cloud providers’ shoulders or those of the ISP?

Or even the customer, when it comes down to it. Should they have signed up for overdraft protection when it comes to bandwidth in the first place?

Sure, spikes like those of last week are not that common, but it is not unthinkable that such occurrences may become more frequent, given that many people are turning to blogs, Twitter and YouTube in place of their local news station or paper to get up-to-the minute information on something like the Iran protests. And then you have to factor in the spamming that follows close behind a big news event.

And I’m not talking just about Gen X and Y flocking to the Internet when something happens, but people like my 66-year-old father, who stopped reading newspapers several years ago and now sustains himself on a steady Internet news diet instead.

What do you think? Is Internet traffic cause for concern when it comes to cloud computing services, or is it a nonissue? Let me know, ctorode@techtarget.com.