Secure Web Services?

One key dependency for the growth of the mobile internet is that we have reliable web services. This is parallel to Google's vision on cloud computing.

While web services and cloud computing are compelling new trends for the desktop and enterprise environments, they are essential for a mobile internet world. We need the storage space and processing power of server computers, rather than be limited by the capabilities of a mobile device; we will often want to do broader manipulation of our data on the desktop and then mini manipulation on the mobile device, much like people use Outlook today; and we will want the security of having our data on a server in case we break or lose our mobile device.

It will be important for all these services to exist on the web and that users trust in their reliability and security. CIOs (subject of another blog) have their own concerns and needs about web services; individual users will need to have a high confidence level because they have limited negotiating power with the web service providers.

Some recent developments show that we have a long way to go to earn this consumer trust. Blackberry's have had several widespread outages and Amazon's S3 Web Services had a recent significant outage. Charter Communications deleted the emails for 14,000 users, and evidently did not keep backups. And a "computer glitch" gave the FBI access to all the email accounts on an unnamed network.

Granted these incidents may be isolated and rare, and generate lots of attention for the media. And it is likely that most all web services provide greater reliability and security than most home networks and maybe most enterprises. Nevertheless, perception is reality for the consumer, so service providers must try doubly hard to earn the trust of users before they will feel comfortable leaving all their data, communications, family photos, music, school notes, or whatever in "the cloud". And they must feel comfortable for us to realize the growth potential of the mobile internet.