The best thing about Web 2.0 is the idea that we can use services on the web with just a browser. In fact, this seems to be rather pedestrian now. Just about any software is available as a service online and what is more the service also looks after our data as well.

Perhaps the best of these services is Google's Docs and Spreadsheets, this being a service where we can do word processing and spreadsheet things and have this service available from anywhere we might be at the time. We can even access our data from home, work, in an Internet cafe, and so on.

However, we must understand that there is a risk in using such a service. Consider for a minute the case of a web hosting business Jatol.com. Yes that is the correct link to Jatol, but as noted by customers of Jatol, this web hosting company has died and there were no indications to any customer that this business was to close.

Yes, that is right, customers with websites and email suddenly had their site cut, down, no longer available either to login to or to find online. And all without notice and from a business that had worked seamlessly for 7 years.

This story underlines the importance of two things. First in using a service you want to choose a service that has likelihood of existing under foreseeable circumstances. I would not trust my data with a startup for example. And I would not trust my data with a business of 50 people. I did trust my photos with Yahoo! and before they turned off the photo storage service Yahoo! did the right thing in contacting me and giving me options to transport my photos to another service.

In fact, I do not really trust anyone with my data for fear that one morning I would awake to find I no longer have access. So the second remark I will make is that regardless of the likelihood of the service to survive that it is important to backup all data. So in the case of using Google Docs and Spreadsheets I save a copy of each document onto a local server I have at home. I also have some backups on a third party storage server online.

So the third remark I will make is that regardless of what service you are using, and whether you backup at home or online, you need to keep a record of what you do so that anyone else can pick up the pieces if anything should happen to you particularly if you keep documents that are mission critical to your business or to your employer.

Yes there is a downside to Web 2.0 and you need to be ready for anything!