As reported by IT World,  “The website for MegaCloud, a provider of free and paid consumer cloud storage, is inaccessible and users of the service are complaining on social media sites that they have not had access to their data for days.”

It’s unclear why the service is not working.  Is it because of an outage, or, most of their users fear, because the company has gone out of business?

“When attempting to access MegaCloud.com, it returns a notice that the site could not be found. None of the other sites associated with MegaCloud work either, such as the features page, pricing information and the contact links.”

This comes on the heels of cloud storage provider Nirvanix taking a dirt nap, which sent shivers throughout the emerging world of cloud computing users.  What is their new course of action if their cloud provider goes belly-up?

Brace yourselves.  We will see a long list of cloud providers exit the market over the next few years, as the larger players, including AWS, Google, and Microsoft, lower their prices and expand their services.  At a certain point, some of the smaller cloud players cannot keep up, cash becomes an issue, and the investors pull the plug.

More likely, larger cloud providers will purchase smaller companies and the services may go away after time.  That’s a bit less abrupt than just shutting the doors, but it’s just as disruptive.

Companies need to dial these issues into their operational planning.  Moreover, consider financial viability in the mix when you select a cloud provider.