Cloud backups versus lightning strikes
As the saying goes, cloud computing is just someone else's computer. Always backup your cloud backups... in your backup. Google's spokesperson used the percentage statistic to avoid how much data was lost. Other cloud providers have also lost customer data due to various problems. While a well-run cloud service provider is more reliable than keeping data under your mattress (just like a well-run bank is better than keeping cash under your mattress), its not magic. Nature is still more powerful than even Google. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33989384 Google says data has been wiped from discs at one of its data centres in Belgium - after it was struck by lightning four times. Some people have permanently lost access to their files as a result.
On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 08:44:03PM -0400, Sean Donelan wrote:
As the saying goes, cloud computing is just someone else's computer. Always backup your cloud backups... in your backup.
This was data loss on GCE "persistent disks" (equivalent to AWS EBS), not archival storage. Hopefully very few people are using persistent disks as *backup* storage (if nothing else, it's more expensive). The general point is still valid, though -- *any* single instance of data is vulnerable to loss, whether it's on your computer, or someone else's. Backups are never optional. - Matt
On Thu, 2015-08-20 at 11:38 +1000, Matt Palmer wrote:
Backups are never optional.
Love the phrasing too - "permanently lost access to their data". Their data is not lost, not gone, not destroyed, oh no! It's still there, somewhere, but they will just never, ever be able to access it again. Maybe it's to leave a sliver of hope: "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again (all together now, customers!) some sunny daaaaay"... Regards, K. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Karl Auer (kauer@biplane.com.au) http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer http://twitter.com/kauer389 GPG fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4 Old fingerprint: EC67 61E2 C2F6 EB55 884B E129 072B 0AF0 72AA 9882
My read on the situation is Yet Another Intermediate Cacheing Fail in storage, a well known problem. Yes, do a pull the power test on your storage so you KNOW what's committed... George William Herbert Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 19, 2015, at 5:44 PM, Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> wrote:
As the saying goes, cloud computing is just someone else's computer. Always backup your cloud backups... in your backup.
Google's spokesperson used the percentage statistic to avoid how much data was lost. Other cloud providers have also lost customer data due to various problems. While a well-run cloud service provider is more reliable than keeping data under your mattress (just like a well-run bank is better than keeping cash under your mattress), its not magic.
Nature is still more powerful than even Google.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33989384
Google says data has been wiped from discs at one of its data centres in Belgium - after it was struck by lightning four times.
Some people have permanently lost access to their files as a result.
participants (4)
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George Herbert -
Karl Auer -
Matt Palmer -
Sean Donelan