In a very short time, phrases like ‘on the cloud,’ and ‘cloud computing’ have become part of everyday corporate vernacular. With more and more companies using this technology to share information with employees, customers, and vendors in real-time, Internet giants like Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), and Microsoft (MSFT) have realized the potential profits for providing cloud-based services — and the potential downfalls when servers fail.

However, with intense competition comes intense scrutiny. During a violent series of thunderstorms in the Mid-Atlantic region a few weeks ago, Amazon faced a temporary shutdown of its EC2 cloud computing services. This shutdown hurt several companies, including the popular dating site, Whatsyourprice.com, because customers could not use the service during peak hours. As a result, the company dropped EC2 and moved to another cloud provider.

The particular area, also known as availability zone US-East-Zone-1, affected by the storms also suffered downtime due to technical difficulties in March and June. The repeated outages have caused some customers to deem the service “unreliable.” Any future disruptions could cause a mass exodus if Amazon can’t find faster ways to resolve issues and safeguard against future ones. Amazon does request that companies work on at least two availability zones in case one goes down, however.

Storms and technical difficulties are just some of many issues companies offering cloud services face on a daily basis.To continue reading, click here.