Accidents happen. That’s why the cloud needs a crumple zone

Grazed from GigaOm.  Author: Tal Klein.

When Henry Ford started churning out Model Ts on his assembly line in 1908, there hadn’t been an automobile fatality in nearly 40 years — not since Mary Ward was run over by a steam-powered car in Ireland in 1869. But with modern production, engineering improvements, better roads and more cars on them, automobile safety became a growing concern.

One of the car’s most recognizable safety features, the seatbelt, became standard equipment by the 1970s, but it wasn’t until 1984 that seatbelt use was made mandatory — over the protestations of the public and industry. Why? After decades of education and awareness, a majority of the public finally came to realize that seatbelts save lives…


Since then, car safety has gone from being an optional afterthought to a required feature, gauged by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 5-Star Star Safety Rating. Today’s cars are replete with innovations engineered to make them safer to drive and to protect passengers when things go awry. Many of these features, like breakaway steering columns and crumple zones, are not as evident as the ubiquitous seatbelt, but are integral to the car’s design because we came to terms with a simple fact: Accidents are inevitable…

Read more from the source @ https://gigaom.com/2014/09/20/accidents-happen-thats-why-the-cloud-needs-a-crumple-zone/