Is technology just "stuff that doesn't work yet"?
Technology breaks. Fact. Its unwavering ability to crash, operate outside of expected parameters and otherwise fail spectacularly at the most inconvenient moment is usually only equalled by our own ability to completely screw things up through human failure, misunderstanding and plain incompetence. Yet, rather than a warning to avoid technology, accepting this truth is the first important step to existing on the cutting edge of innovation.
Just ask my laptop. On an almost daily basis I can be heard swearing loudly and threatening my portable digital workhorse with a manual reboot procedure that involves a hammer and the voiding of warranty. Yet most of the time the issue is probably what IT departments tactfully call ‘operator error’ – usually defined by my daughter pointing and laughing at me.
But some of the blame does indeed rest with technology itself. I take great comfort in these lines Douglas Adams wrote in a particularly prescient article on the rise of the internet back in 1999.
"(A) problem with the net is that it’s still 'technology', and 'technology', as the computer scientist Bran Ferren memorably defined it, is 'stuff that doesn't work yet'. We no longer think of chairs as technology, we just think of them as chairs. But there was a time when we hadn't worked out how many legs chairs should have, how tall they should be, and they would often 'crash' when we tried to use them. Before long, computers will be as trivial and plentiful as chairs (and a couple of decades or so after that, as sheets of paper or grains of sand) and we will cease to be aware of the things. In fact I'm sure we will look back on this last decade and wonder how we could ever have mistaken what we were doing with them for 'productivity'."
Until that day, we live in an uneasy partnership with technology. We love our smartphones one day and then swear continually the next because the autocorrect sucks/it won’t connect to wifi /it lost all your settings/all of the above.
Although all of us can relate to this, we continue to demand 100% perfection from technology. Why is it, despite all my previous frustrating experiences with technology, I still act all surprised and unprepared when the worst happens? (Or is that just me?)
The internet and computer technology in general could still be said to be in one long Beta phase. We’re still ironing out the bugs and working towards the relaxed, foolproof user experience we all want. But if we waited for that time to come, we wouldn't be the innovators and leaders, we'd be the followers and latecomers.
Leading means getting out in front. And the one out in front hits the bumps in the road first. Knowing that means you can be prepared. Cloud computing is no different, despite the sometimes unfair and unrealistic expectation some have that it should be 100% flawless and reliable. It’s just not a guarantee that anyone in their right mind could give. It can be as close to flawless as we can make it, but even the safest driver still wears a seatbelt just in case of the unexpected.
Instead, get organised. Plan for the worst at the same time as you strive for the best. In any technology project, it is a good idea to take stock of the risks and build in disaster recovery strategies, backup procedures, regular snapshots and whatever is most appropriate to protect your mission critical plans.
Innovation and complexity - although not always synonymous - do hang out together. And complexity brings risk. There is a reason they call it the 'cutting edge', after all.