Control Your Own Destiny
Daring Fireball recently linked to a piece at The Economist discussing Amazon’s blocking of Lendle.
The brief outage demonstrates a fundamental truth about the internet: if you don’t own the data you need to run your business, you’re dependent on the policies—and whims—of the parties that do. Jeff Croft, Lendle’s founder, says he will not make that mistake again.
I have long believed that this is also true for your business’s infrastructure. If email or web analytics are a crucial part to running your business, you should think seriously about bringing those services under your control. Using Gmail for your domain or Google Analytics is not really free. In both cases, you’re hosting your data at Google, in one case explicitly giving them permission to use that data.
I know from personal experience that Google will shut down accounts with no notice or warning, shutting off your access to critical information. Do you really want to take that chance with your business?
I totally agree that it’s important for me to control the crucial parts of my business. I do think, though, that using Google Apps for my domain is totally fine since it’s not essential to my business. Sure, I need email, but if Google decides to shut that down, I can go find another free email address and continue doing business. I do think Lendle is an important lesson and your point is important for all businesses to consider – control the essential parts of your business.