Outage Outrage

Is there something in the August air?

In the last seven days, outages have impacted Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), and Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN). Today, Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s iCloud and the Nasdaq data feed have been affected. (See: If Web Giants Sneeze, Do We All Catch Cold?.)

The Nasdaq crash is probably causing the most concern, since it has halted trading on that exchange. However, Apple's iCloud woes affected a few million people, as well.

Are we in the midst of an extraordinary display of our future vulnerability, or is this merely the new normal? A year from now, will outages of this sort even be considered newsworthy?

— Carol Wilson, Editor-at-Large, Light Reading