Friday, October 2, 2009
Another One of These Cloud Computing Rants and You’ve Got Yourself a Stand-Up Routine, Larry
The passing of a year hasn’t much changed Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s opinion of cloud computing. Remarking on the industry’s sudden fascination with the concept at Oracle OpenWorld last September, Ellison reduced it to a thin sheen of windshield condensation. In conversation with former Sun CEO Ed Zander at a Churchill Club event a little over a year later, Ellison expanded on those remarks, suggesting that if the cloud is anything, it’s a cloud of BS.
The best laid plans of mice and men “gang aft agley,” as they say. iPhone carriers as well, apparently. Because British wireless carrier O2 claims it was well prepared for the iPhone pre-order event that felled its Web site earlier this week. It just wasn’t well prepared enough. In an email to customers today, O2 apologized for the failure of its online ordering system this week, explaining there was little it could do to prepare for the 13,000 orders per second that overwhelmed it. That’s right: 13,000 orders per second. O2’s full statement follows. 
