I see this type of comment across a number of fields - why isn't X safer?
Generally is comes down to the 'insurance' argument - why didn't we spend the time (read: money) to test and prevent for X?
The answer corms down to the risk/benefit.
It's possible to insure your house against total loss, against any type of threat. You could build it on the shoreline of a known hurricane location, or on top of an active volcano, and insure it for full replacement. All you have to do is deposit an amount equal to the replacement cost in an account - if you suffer total loss, spend the money and replace the house.
Where people go wrong is by thinking that problems can and should be prevented at any cost. But the issue is that thinking that way leads to excessive costs for the thing in the first place. It would be possible to design a highway system where nobody ever died. However the cost would be so high that very few highways would be built, so the advantages of cheap and easy travel are lost.
Likewise, it would be possible for Microsoft to build an automated testing and checking software that never made a mistake. However that would make azure uncompetitive or unprofitable. It's cheaper just to hire good people and accept that occasionally, something might go wrong.
Some software is actually made to never go wrong. That software is in satellites and mars rovers and the like. Even then mistakes happen due to the nature of complexity and probability. But the cost per line of delivered code for a satellite is orders of magnitude higher than the cost of azure management code.
You really only need to look at problems when the cost of fix is much better than the cost of potential loss. That's why planes are safer than cars - because the loss of a big plane and passengers is a very costly event.
Comments
I see this type of comment across a number of fields - why isn't X safer?
Generally is comes down to the 'insurance' argument - why didn't we spend the time (read: money) to test and prevent for X?
The answer corms down to the risk/benefit.
It's possible to insure your house against total loss, against any type of threat. You could build it on the shoreline of a known hurricane location, or on top of an active volcano, and insure it for full replacement. All you have to do is deposit an amount equal to the replacement cost in an account - if you suffer total loss, spend the money and replace the house.
Where people go wrong is by thinking that problems can and should be prevented at any cost. But the issue is that thinking that way leads to excessive costs for the thing in the first place. It would be possible to design a highway system where nobody ever died. However the cost would be so high that very few highways would be built, so the advantages of cheap and easy travel are lost.
Likewise, it would be possible for Microsoft to build an automated testing and checking software that never made a mistake. However that would make azure uncompetitive or unprofitable. It's cheaper just to hire good people and accept that occasionally, something might go wrong.
Some software is actually made to never go wrong. That software is in satellites and mars rovers and the like. Even then mistakes happen due to the nature of complexity and probability. But the cost per line of delivered code for a satellite is orders of magnitude higher than the cost of azure management code.
You really only need to look at problems when the cost of fix is much better than the cost of potential loss. That's why planes are safer than cars - because the loss of a big plane and passengers is a very costly event.