T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger data loss is bad for the cloud

**koala** · 10-12-2009, 08:50 AM

From http://arstechnica.com/business/news...-the-cloud.ars

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T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger have told Sidekick users who have been suffering for a data outage this week that their data is gone for good. So far, tech punditry's read on this massive, high-profile data loss is that it's a black eye for "the cloud." For once, the consensus is spot-on.

If you're a Sidekick user who has been waiting out the past week's data outage in hopes of a happy ending, you're not going to like the joint press release that Microsoft and T-Mobile put out on the matter this past Saturday. The release contains a line that no service provider ever wants to see in print with their name attached to it: "Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger's latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device—such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos—that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger." Ouch.

Any of your data that's on Microsoft's servers is just gone, and the only possible backup of it is whatever's cached in your device's local memory—so do not allow your device to lose power, T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger warn in the press release's headline, or you'll never see your data again.

From http://www.hiptop3.com/archives/what...-sidekick-fail

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Currently the rumor with the most weight is as follows:
Microsoft was upgrading their SAN (Storage Area Network aka the thing that stores all your data) and had hired Hitachi to come in and do it for them. Typically in an upgrade like this, you are expected to make backups of your SAN before the upgrade happens. Microsoft failed to make these backups for some reason. We’re not sure if it was because of the amount of data that would be required, if they didn’t have time to do it, or if they simply forgot.

Update 15-Oct
http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/?category.id=Sidekick

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Microsoft Confirms Data Recovery for Sidekick Users

Data Restoration to Begin as Soon as Possible for Affected Customers

Dear T-Mobile Sidekick customers,

On behalf of Microsoft, I want to apologize for the recent problems with the Sidekick service and give you an update on the steps we have taken to resolve these problems.

We are pleased to report that we have recovered most, if not all, customer data for those Sidekick customers whose data was affected by the recent outage. We plan to begin restoring users’ personal data as soon as possible, starting with personal contacts, after we have validated the data and our restoration plan. We will then continue to work around the clock to restore data to all affected users, including calendar, notes, tasks, photographs and high scores, as quickly as possible.

We now believe that data loss affected a minority of Sidekick users. If your Sidekick account was among those affected, please continue to log into these forums for the latest updates about when data restoration will begin, and any steps you may need to take. We will work with T-Mobile to post the next update on data restoration timing no later than Saturday.

We have determined that the outage was caused by a system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back-up. We rebuilt the system component by component, recovering data along the way. This careful process has taken a significant amount of time, but was necessary to preserve the integrity of the data.

We will continue working closely with T-Mobile to restore user data as quickly as possible. We are eager to deliver the level of reliable service that our incredibly loyal customers have become accustomed to, and we are taking immediate steps to help ensure this does not happen again. Specifically, we have made changes to improve the overall stability of the Sidekick Service and initiated a more resilient backup process to ensure that the integrity of our database backups is maintained.

Once again, we apologize for this situation and the inconvenience that it has created. Please know that we are working all-out to resolve this situation and restore the reliability of the service.

Sincerely,
Roz Ho
Corporate Vice President
Premium Mobile Experiences, Microsoft Corporation