The post on cloud failure modalities made passing reference to someone whose Google existence had been snuffed out for no adequately explored reason.  He’s now posted the resolution, and it points up an extra twist in the modalities I discussed.

It transpires that an automated algorithm at Google had erroneously tagged the account as possibly hosting what some have euphemistically termed ‘c-porn’.  Google’s silence towards him was entirely on account of there being an ongoing legal investigation, and because of the nature of the accusation, they were barred from telling him the reason.  This is understandable, though the value of saying nothing at all might be a little limited: if you live in a liberal democracy and weird things start happening to your data services (with no hint of explanation), you can probably assume you have been accused either of hosting c-porn or of some form of espionage.  (Then again, many with over-active imaginations will see the hand of a controlling regime behind every web access failure if that meme escapes.)

The relevance to my earlier blog, then, is that in the cloud things may go wrong through the deliberate action of your service provider(s), and they may not even be able to tell you about it.  And, once again, that could be due to law enforcement actions in any jurisdiction in which your provider has a presence.

Was the cloud supposed to bring stability or instability?