Worst Web Outages In 2011 [Infographic]

In 2011, we saw a lot of new websites and services spring up like potatoes all around the Internet. Some became pillars in the networking landscapes, while others are still struggling to survive. It’s not easy to get a great idea going with successful results these days, to say the least. You have to work hard, stay dedicated, and constantly try new things in order for your concept and idea to progress beyond the others. That doesn’t mean that the ride between idea and success is going to be a smooth one. That is as far from the truth as you can get. Every new company and service has their period of trial and error, and it constantly keeps happening.

After looking back at 2011 and the things that happened, SmartBear Software took it upon themselves to compose an infographic that features the worst web outages in 2011. We are of course not talking about small companies here, quite the opposite really. We are talking about a list of globally well-known companies that during 2011 had to struggle at some point to keep their services secure and stable. As you can see, you are never going to completely wipe out the troubles that an online service is going to experience from time to time.

Companies ranging from Bank of America, Foursquare, Quora and Netflix all had a rough time, and as I take it, they are still making changes to make sure this is not going to happen again in 2012. What we can all learn from this is that whatever you do to make your service as bullet proof as possible, you are always going to experience some kind of hiccup when you grow fast and users find new ways to use your product or service, especially if those ways are not what was originally intended. We have seen it over and over again with Twitter, Facebook and all the other networking services on the Internet. The only thing we can do about it is to somewhat prepare with the resources it takes to solve any future problems.