Setting back network-based computing one return at a time

There are many advantages to running applications on a network, like not having to worry about an operating system, eliminating your local host footprint, etc. But there's a big unspoken but widely understood issue: it's trust. You need to be able to trust that things will work just as well on the network as they would on your local server. You hand-over control and therefore accept some risk in exchange for the benefits. The overall function should net benefits to the customer.

Back in the early days of 'cloud computing' circa 1999 when we were running client-server apps like Exchange straight over public IP, customers were taking trade-offs in performance but conscientious ASPs more than delivered in terms of cost savings, availability and reliability. The last thing you wanted to do was make things on balance worse for the customer. And the ABSOLUTELY last thing you wanted to do was lose someones data even if it was 'just email'.

Well, fast foward a decade later. Here's a $3 billion so called leader in personal finance software, Intuit, with thier leading tax prep solution, Turbotax, trying to remain relevant within a growing market of online personal finance and related alternatives such as mint.com, wesabe.com , and others, many founded by Intuit alumni. These startups get that the key to the battle is in building trust. Well, let me tell you, if you are trying to build trust in an online business, you don't do it by losing someone's data.

I just got off a call with the Turbotax support line, because the help page directions I had been following to access a previous years return didn't seem to work. After spending 30 minutes waiting for an answer (this is actually the average hold time) and another 20+ on the phone with support, I'm told that the 2007 to 2008 conversion I had attempted, per the online help instructions, can only work once. If it didn't work the first time then your tax data has been deleted.

Never in my years of experience with various forms of online-based services would I ever have expected to encounter a system that would, by default, delete customer data. I wouldn't write an MRD for a program like that. I had never worked with an engineer that would code something like that. Nor do I recall a sys admin who would ever manage an environment where you couldn't recover data even if the program couldn't access it.

Not only is Intuit showing incompetance in application development, but by losing customer data they risk pulling down the entire industry. Whether you're doing online storage, CRM, ERP or security across the public cloud or within a private cloud, we absolutely must be stewards of the customer's data and ultimately thier trust. We strive to bring net benefits. But at the very least, even if you as a company are incapable of evolving yourself, even if you can't deliver customer value within an online model, then for the sake of those companies around you who will make it, please at least 'do no harm' and don't drag down the industry around you.