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Via The Guardian:
“Tens of millions of internet users across the Middle East and Asia have been left without access to the web after a technical fault cut millions of connections.
The outage, which is being blamed on a fault in a single undersea cable, has severely restricted internet access in countries including India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and left huge numbers of people struggling to get online.
Observers say that the digital blackout first struck yesterday morning, with the Egypt’s communications ministry suggesting it was caused by a cut in a major internet pipeline linking it to Europe.
The line in question runs under the Mediterranean, from Palermo in Italy to Alexandria in Egypt. It is not clear what caused the break. The cable is one of only a handful of connections, and part of the world’s longest undersea cable, 24,500 miles long, running from Germany, through the Middle East and India before terminating in Australia and Japan.
Reports suggested that the lack of alternative routes for internet traffic meant only a small proportion of surfers were managing to get online. Egyptian officials said that around 70% of the country’s online traffic was being blocked, while officials in Mumbai said that more than half of India’s internet capacity had been erased, which could have potentially disastrous consequences for the country’s burgeoning hi-tech industry.
“There has been a 50% to 60% cut in bandwidth,” Rajesh Charia, president of the Internet Service Providers’ Association of India told Reuters.”
How much money was lost because of this is anyone’s guess, but I bet it runs at least in the tens of millions of dollars in potential business loss. This brings a point I previously wrote about: what if it is all over today? I know you may think it is unrealistic however, circumstances happen! For those who had an exclusive and lucrative deal with an office in the Twin Towers in NYC in 01 it was just as unrealistic as my words here. What if there is no internet tomorrow? what if advertising as we know it is dead? What if tracking is no more possible and no other business model exist to quickly replace the pay-per-click model? How long can you float? Can you STILL retire rich? Your domains may have some value, may not. I know, “It can’t happen”, “It won’t happen”, or so they said thousands of times before.
The solution? At some point in your business life you must diversify. Have 5% of your net worth aside for rainy days. How is it going to help? As I’m sure you are quite optimistic about your future plans (when it comes to our own plans, aren’t we all?) 5% of your net worth, if you work towards that goal, is not impossible to set aside. If everything goes by your plan then you won’t notice any of it. If everything goes wrong, that 5% will set you up in the very top of smart investors in the world during tough times.
The scenario above is no difference than a business running the “Hit By A Bus” Scenario but instead of thinking of one key personnel loss, think about your business model.
Are you prepared? And if not, should you? I believe not that you should - you must!
Have a great day!
Sahar
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